Using Curse Words Before Your Kids – A Guide for Parents

Words have more power than we know, and kids learn from their parents. The kind of words you use and your action before your children form their behavioral pattern. Some argue that swearing or using curse words in front of your kids is not bad as long as it is not at them. I would say as long as it is not acceptable to use curse words on your kids, then you should be using it on anyone in the first place, and you shouldn\’t be doing that before your children. 

Impact of using curse words before your kids
  1. You are your child\’s first teacher. They learn their first, second, and tenth words from you. They also learn to use the curse words they hear you say to others or them, and it becomes a part of their vocabulary.
  2. Your child will use the curse words they have heard, and others say on you and their siblings if they have any.
  3. Children believe at the early stage of their lives that whatever their parents do is right. They pick up your language and use it because they think it is correct.
  4. Babies mimic every word their parents say when they start learning to speak, and it does include curse words.
  5. Cursing in front of your toddler and baby is teaching them aggressiveness.
  6. You also teach your baby that profanity is acceptable. Don\’t be surprised when your baby begins to use it on you.
  7. The words you use when under duress or when you are frustrated impacts how your baby grows to handle his emotions
What should you do in front of your kids?

Getting angry is inevitable, but you should avoid cursing.

  • Decide to stop cursing all together. It makes it easier not to use curse words accidentally before your kids.
  • From when your child is a baby, speak positive and kind words before them.
  • Many parents have tried replacing curse words with other words. You might also try this trick. You can form yours or try these;
  • \”What the frog, shut the front door, fire truck, holy ship.\”
  • Stop yelling and shouting. Learn to communicate your emotions properly without raising your voice or attaching curse words.
  • Swearing could have been a learned behavior from the family or background you grew up in, and you don\’t want your children to learn that you have to work on yourself to do better. And teach your kids why swearing or cursing isn\’t the best way to let out their frustrations.
  • When your emotions get the best of you, it best you say calming things or stay quiet. There are wisdom and strength in quietness, and your little ones need to learn this.

In case you are wondering what curse words are or swearing means below are examples of them; Fuck, Shit, Bull shit, Fuck you, shut the fuck up, holy shit, Jeez, and many others. Words are power physically, emotionally, psychologically, and socially. You don\’t want to find yourself misusing such a powerful tool and then teaching your baby and toddlers to do likewise.

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Living with Your Grandparents: Benefits for Kids

Show me a child that doesn\’t like being pampered with love and attention. There is none and who does the pampering better than grandparents? Every parent looks forward to seeing their grandchildren maybe that is why most grandparents can deal with the whining of babies and toddlers.

While some children live with their grandparents due to circumstances beyond their control, others live with them because the grandparents moved in with their parents. Living with grandparents has its benefits.

Reasons, why children live with grandparents, are many. Some are unavoidable

  • The death of either of both parents of a child
  • The child was given birth to by young parents who were not ready to raise the child
  • The parents could be sick
  • The grandparents want their grandchild to stay with them
  • The grandparent is sick and needs to move in with the children
  • The grandparent moved in to help the family
  • A grandparent is relocating from one either a state or country.
Benefits of living with Grandparents:
  • You have additional adult supervision for your children
  • With someone to look at the kids with an elders\’ eye, you have more time to do other things.
  • The children enjoy more attention and care which you as a parent might be tired to give after being exhausted from the day\’s responsibility.
  • Grandparents can help the children learn new skills, help them with reading and their homework.
  • Who better to teach the children history and take them back in time than grandparents.
  • Sometimes children feel more relaxed sharing their thoughts and worries with the grandparents than their parents. You would prefer that than them talking to their inexperienced friends.

How Parents can help their Kids living with their grandparents

  1. Teach your children to respect their grandparents. Children tend to test their grandparents\’ patience when allowed
  2. Let your children know that it is responsible to make it a part of their daily routine to help with the chores at home.
  3. Let them check with them their grandparents as they would check with their parents before making decisions like bringing your friends over, leaving the house.
  4. The children should be taught that their grandparents should be involved in whatever is happening in their school activities. They are the ones looking after them and looking out for them.
  5. Don\’t become a handful sucking up all their time and keeping them worried. They don\’t have the strength of youth. They spent that raising your parents. Is a statement they need to hear regularly.
What to do if your grandparents live with you
  • Make them feel welcome and at home. Don\’t make them feel like they encroached on your space
  • Keep the house tidy and free from litters.
  • Children don\’t go around snooping around granny\’s and grandpa\’s things. Ask their permission before touching their things.
  • Your grandparents like the company which parents are not available to give. Children spend time chatting and having fun with them.
  • Never be rude to them. Never insult them
  • Parents should help grandparents and grandchildren have bonding time and activities. A time to share family stories.

Whether you are living with your grandparents or they are living with you, make use of the opportunity to enjoy every moment with them. You won\’t have them around forever.

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Things You Should Understand if You Have a Baby and a Pet

You most likely had your pet before your baby, and your pet is a major part of your family circle and daily routine. Now that your baby is either on the way or has arrived, everyone including the pet, has to make major adjustments for the baby. The most common pets are dogs and cat and the way you help them adjust to your baby goes a long way in the way everyone fares.

Your pet is well aware that a little one is on the way, and if it’s your first child, then you should prepare your pet for the ultimate switch of attention. One interesting thing about pets is their loyalty and sense of smell. They will listen to instructions you train them with and you can use their sense of smell to the advantage of the baby and pet.

Things to Do

  • Before the baby is born, constantly tell your pet that new addition to the family is on the way.
  • Before bringing the baby from the hospital, you can get your pet to sniff the clothes the baby has one so that your pets get familiar with the scent of the baby on arrival.
  • When you are ready to introduce your baby to your cat or dog, make sure it is done under strict supervision. Don’t allow the dog to lick the ears or body of your baby. Since Cats can be so unpredictable, do not allow your cat to get too close on the first introduction.
  • It will only be wise to keep your dog on a leash for the first few weeks anytime he is around the baby.
  • When your baby starts to crawl, keep the cat litter far from him or her. Your cat could have parasite toxoplasma, which is not safe for babies.

Things you shouldn’t do.

  • Do not leave your baby in a walker, crib or swing alone with your pet
  • Don’t leave your baby on the floor with your dog and cat, especially when they have shown aggressive behaviour.
  • You shouldn’t raise your voice on the pet. Show your pets the same affection and attention before the arrival of the baby.
  • Do not shy away from being affirmative when communicating with your part. Always stand by your no when you want them to behave properly.

Benefits of having a pet at home

Some research has shown that having a pet at home has some benefits for your baby.

  1. Children that grow with pets around them grow up to be healthy and happy. Pets around them prevent them from developing allergies as adults. They build immunity to allergens they would have been exposed to as babies.
  2. Parents and child bonding time is developed during dog walking time. You can also walk the dog with the baby in the stroller helping you exercise.
  3. Several respiratory illnesses are absent in children who grew up with pets around them
  4. Your baby will grow to learn how to treat animals better as you teach him or her to do better with animals.

Whatever you do, do not neglect your child and your pet. Always be proactive, full of care, and be attentive to the concerns of all parties involved.

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When Should you Introduce Your Child to technology?

mom and child reading

You might have heard things like, “do not expose your children to screen time before they are 2 years of age”, or no phone till they are eight years of age.” While these statements are meant to be for the benefit of children, it is not holistic. It doesn’t put into consideration the peculiarity of every child and home, the interest and the increasing demand of our time. While some argue that it is not alright to introduce your baby to phones, tablets, and video games early, some believe it is ok. 

I believe in balance. Weighing the benefits against the consequences, putting in place measures to ensure the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of your child is what should determine when you introduce your baby to technology.

When do you introduce Technology to your child?

You can introduce your baby, who is an infant to technology appropriate for his age. From when babies are born, they take a keen interest in what their parents do. If you spend much time with your phone, you see your baby develop an interest in your phone early and if your time is much around the television, your infant begins to enjoy television time. Install age-appropriate videos and songs suitable for a six months old on your smartphone or home theatres.

For preschoolers, there are more amazing and more advances technology they can be introduced to. Instead of just videos and songs, identifying numbers and colours, there are coding basics available to help your five-year-old learn great life skills. You bring in fun hands-on games and activities that can be used with either a family tablet or their tablet which also has a parental control feature activated. While playing with physical objects, they think like programmers, solving life hacks.

Some parents wait till the primary school or elementary school stage to introduce them to technology. By this time, the children are beginning to become independent and aware of themselves. Many at this age can play video games, phone games, so whatever device you give, make sure to have parental control activated on them to protect them from the unrestricted information available on the internet.

Benefits of Technology for your child

  1. Technology encourages learning and development in a child. A less than a two-year-old child is singing “baby shark” and “Black black black sheep,” which children in our time weren’t singing before age four. You will be amazed at how many intellectual and problem-solving skills they build from a very young age.
  2. Your little one’s language and communication skills will improve. Learning new words and spellings are part of the fun things they do on their tablets. An example is the Spelling app, “Akili’s Alphabet.”
  3. Technology can also help your baby’s visual to hand coordination.
  4. Have you seen the way children rally around each other when one of them has a tablet to play with? It helps in developing their social skills. Teaching them the skill of sharing things, ideas, and learning together as a team.
  5. Children can develop mathematical and coding skills early through some of these technology built mainly for this purpose.

In conclusion, whatever you do, do not open social media account for your children less than 13 years of age to handle by themselves.

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Top Parenting Tips For First Time Moms

Bесоmіng a first-time mоm hаѕ іtѕ сhаllеngеѕ аnd how wеll to аnd nоt tо care for уоur lіttlе оnе. Parenting can be fun and frustrating but there are always more positives than negatives. It іѕ a nеw chapter еvеrу уоung mоm іѕ аlwауѕ lооkіng fоrwаrd tо, and it\’s bіttеrѕwееt mоmеntѕ.

Remember, do whаtеvеr уоu think fееlѕ rіght tо уоu аnd ѕuіtѕ your bаbу’ѕ nееdѕ rаthеr thаn trуіng tо do whаt everybody tеllѕ you to. Here are a few parenting tips to guide you as a first-time mom.

You’re thе еxреrt:

Tаkіng аdvісе doesn’t hurt, but аlѕо dоn’t be аfrаіd tо іgnоrе thаt advice, аnd gо with your instincts. Dо what уоu fееl comfortable with аnd еnjоу your mоthеrhооd.

Stор the соmраrіѕоn:

You ѕhоuld not always trу thе ѕаmе thіngѕ уоur frіеndѕ did whіlе tаkіng саrе оf their bаbіеѕ or соmраrе your сhіld to others. Rеmеmbеr: every сhіld іѕ dіffеrеnt.”

Hеlр іѕ not a four lеttеr wоrd (аlthоugh іt іѕ):

If thе оffеrѕ аrе nоt coming іn frоm реорlе, thеn dоn’t be scared tо ask fоr help when you nееd іt.

Thіѕ mоmеnt shall раѕѕ:

“Almоѕt еvеrуthіng hаѕ a phase, аnd thіngѕ сhаngе аll thе tіmе. Nоt hаvіng enough ѕlеер, hаtіng the bath, thrоwіng fооd аll оvеr thе hоuѕе, etc.? Sоmе will аrguе thаt these moments are whаt makes mоthеrhооd іntеrеѕtіng, whеthеr you аgrее or nоt, they wіll соmе tо раѕѕ.

Sоmеtіmеѕ, babies just сrу:

Often bаbіеѕ сrу just because thеу wаnt tо dо ѕо and nоt fоr аnу оthеr fеаrеd reasons. Comfort thеm, rосk thеm, ѕіng calmly – but dоn’t feel уоu hаvе tо ѕtор іt.

Nothing іѕ mоrе іmроrtаnt thаn sleep and good food:

“Slеер whеn thе baby ѕlеерѕ іf уоu саn, rather than trуіng to gеt thіngѕ done – thе housework can wait!” You muѕt соnѕіdеr whаt to еаt or drіnk аѕ it’s your baby’s primary source of nоurіѕhmеnt.

Parents аrе аllоwеd tо mаkе mistakes:

“Don’t panic if you make a mistake. Many оf uѕ hаvе mаdе thеm tоо, аnd оur children ѕurvіvеd!” The first-time-mom еxреrіеnсеѕ and mоmеntѕ are wоrth reflecting when thеу аrе оvеr.

Yоu’rе аlrеаdу dоіng аn еxсеllеnt job:

“Follow these parenting tips and bеlіеvе іn yourself. Cоnfіdеnсе comes wіth time – but lоvе аnd саrе wіll tаkе уоu a lоng wау.”

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