My sister (the almost single parent of a 5-year-old girl) is ready to make a shift in parenting styles but is worried that it's "too late" - her little one, at 5, has already adopted many poor habits - mostly due to the lack of stability in their lives so far.
How can I help my sister and my niece begin to make the change? What can I tell her? advise her?
She is serious about embraceing a more thoughtful model of parenting but skeptical about the possibility of success....
TIA!
(I hope this makes sense!)
How can I help my sister and my niece begin to make the change? What can I tell her? advise her?
She is serious about embraceing a more thoughtful model of parenting but skeptical about the possibility of success....
TIA!
(I hope this makes sense!)
You're sister can just talk and talk about what's going on in their lives. She can tell your neice that she thinks x really isn't working for them as a family and now she wants to try y. That means the neice will be responsible for z. Then remind the neice that things don't change over night, but they are working on it as a team and things are going to change. I think it's wonderful that your neice will have a role model for always making her life better and not settle for something just because "it's always been done like that". She can also ask your neice is there is something your neice would like to do now. (I realize she's only 5, so I'm not saying your neice should identify a self improvement type of change. But I was thinking maybe the neice eats oatmeal every day for breakfast, but would really like the sugar cereal instead. Then your sister could say, well oatmeal is good for us, but a treat once a week or once every other week wouldn't hurt either. Then the daughter would be engaged in making changes in there life. Does that make sense?)
