Smart Parenting Tips

There’s no “instruction manual” for being a parent, but we’ve found something that comes close. It’s a new book called You: Raising Your Child, by our friends Dr. Michael Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz. They surveyed the top child-development specialists, and narrowed down these simple parenting tips:

• Make more messes. Dr. Oz says a child’s brain is like a sponge that needs to soak up a little bit of everything before kids can find their true passion in life. So, expose your kids to as many different sights, sounds, tastes, and smells as you can – even if you have to get messy doing it.
• Remember that kids are copycats. Statistics show that a child has a 40% chance of becoming obese if their parents are overweight. Kids are also more likely to smoke if their parents smoke! In other words: Children treat themselves the way they see you treat your body, so it’s important to be a strong and healthy role model at all times.
• Play with your kids. Dr. Oz says playtime is when kids are most likely to listen. So, use it to find teachable moments to talk to your kids about life. For example: Dr. Oz says weekly family game nights might teach kids how to handle the stress of competition, and bedtime reading gives you a chance to talk about how make-believe stories might apply to things happening in the real world.
• Don’t overdo it. Dr. Oz says it’s just as unhealthy to be an overbearing “helicopter” parent as it is to be an absentee parent. That’s why he compares parenting to guiding a boat down a long river. He says early on, your goal should be to control the direction and speed of the boat, while teaching your kids everything you know about the river. Eventually, you need to hand over the paddle and let your kids take control – even if they steer too close to the rocks. Otherwise, they’ll never learn how to recover from mistakes.