Positive Parenting Tips for Better Relationships

You’re not alone—3 in 4 parents say they practice positive parenting.

Are you one of them?

If not, don’t worry—it’s never too late to start. And if you are, these tips can help you connect further with your kids.

In this post, you’ll find 6 practical, gentle strategies to support your positive parenting—whether you’re just getting started or have been practicing for a while.

Positive parenting focuses on mutual trust, respect, and communication.

You could also call positive parenting, gentle parenting or conscious parenting.

These elements combine to help you cultivate more compassion towards your child and develop a healthy and loving relationship – a core component of positive parenting.

Continue reading to see how you can put these positive parenting tips into action.

It’s easy to default to autopilot and “yeah, uh-huh” your child when you’re tending to a jillion other things and kids.

When you do this, you are very likely donning a Bitch Face or Autopilot.

Tell me I’m wrong? (I do it too)

But try to resist. Because smiles are a vital part of creating healthy relationships.

A smile shows your kiddo how much you care about them. And that you truly are happy to see them!

Smiling also reduces blood pressure, calms your nervous system, and decreases pain.

Your child feels more connected to you, loved, heard, and seen.

Win-win.

Seems simple, but it’s not. If you’re a parent, you already know this.

Think about how often you watch your child play and innocently interrupt them. (“Oh, that’s a great tower of Magna-Tiles!”)

Or you two talk over each other without hearing a single word of what the other is saying.

And I’m sure you’ve reacted out of habit to their spills, falls, and bazillion questions.

All hush-hush, please stop, tell me later, I don’t have time for this, yeah okay…

Been there. I still go there, but hey I’m human. And you are too.

But, remembering to be mindfully quiet and empathetically listen to them does wonders for your child’s confidence.

When you speak up for your child, it’s revolutionary for them and you.

Speaking up for your kid when you feel they’ve been wronged – yep, even when you are the one who wronged them – shows them that you are their biggest supporter and advocate.

It’s a powerful feeling stepping up to speak up if that scenario wasn’t always the case for you growing up.

Another positive parenting tip is to reparent yourself.

Reparenting is learning how to give your inner self now what your childhood self needed.

Think unconditional love, no threats, and creating and upholding healthy boundaries.

To do this, you’ll have to look inward and work hard to change your habits and views.

You can start reparenting yourself by thinking about your childhood experiences and the people in them.

What happened, and how has the aftermath of those events trickled into your adulthood?

Giving unconditional love (i.e., not giving somebody the silent treatment or shutting down during an argument)

Having healthy boundaries

Not being responsible for adult’s (other’s) feelings

Trust and respect

Having the freedom to play and enjoy life

Some people grew up with emotionally immature caregivers who gave them the silent treatment when they made a mistake.

Some people grew up feeling responsible for their parent’s feelings and actions.

Many people are people-pleasers who can’t uphold a boundary and guilt themselves over enjoying their sliver of downtime or not being “busy enough.”

Reparenting takes inner work, but it’s work that will pay off.

In addition to this blog, follow these helpful accounts for tons of tips on positive parenting:

I follow and love the content on every one of these accounts.

Being more knowledgeable about your child’s development helps you adjust your expectations of them and be more “down at their level.”

Too often, we parents have the bar raised too high, and they’re not physically/cognitvely capable of doing what we ask of them.

For example, it’s very easy to get frustrated with your toddler when they touch the breakables on the shelf, but is it their fault when their brain has poor impulse control at this age?

Or assume that “they’re too old to be behaving like this.”

Or, “he should know to be ready by now!”

Or “she should be able to hold a pencil correctly!”

Take your child’s age into consideration, and start learning about where they are at developmentally. Every child is unique, but it’s still helpful to understand as a parent.

You now have 6 positive parenting tips you can start implementing today that’ll make you a better parent and improve your relationship with your child.

How well are you putting these gentle parenting tips into practice?

Please share below in the comments!

P.S. If you’re looking for something to read next, I recommend this post on the foundational basics of positive parenting.