If you are confused about what is the best parenting strategy, you are not alone. There are many parenting styles and strategies and thousands of books published on parenting and it is confusing which one is the best for you.
I learned that there is one parenting strategy that will work for every parent regardless of age, location, country or nationality.
Imagine being stress free because you know that you are parenting your kids the best way everyday.
Yes, I call it parenting from the heart.
After being a parent for 11 years and after interviewing a lot of successful individuals and business owners – parenting from the heart is the most effective parenting strategy there is.
What does parenting from the heart mean? To me parenting from the heart means.
Parenting with love. Parenting from the heart means using the power of love to find what is the best way to deal with your children, especially on those days when they seem unlovable.
As a parent, I learned that the most important thing that I must possess is a loving heart that forgives my children for all the things they did wrong and for all the things they failed to do.
In our family, disagreement and parenting stress happens when I have a personal judgment and control of what is right and what is wrong and when things should be done and how it should be done. When I control when school and household tasks should be done and how, my kids and I struggle.
When I let go of the need to be right and to be in control of everything, everything flowed with effortless ease because my daughter had freedom to speak up and work on the schedule that best fits them. My kids study and do house chores with zero supervision because mommy did not push it but because we agreed they will work on it.
I learned that parenting is never about perfection but it is all about progress and finding what works for you and your children.
Parenting with limits. Parenting from the heart to me also means understanding that there are limits and boundaries that you need to define and work with your children.
I allow my kids to watch anything on the Ipad but that is because we had an agreement on what they can and cannot watch. As a mom, I feel and know when things go out of hand because I can see my children’s behavior when they are feeding themselves with too much technology or with the wrong kind of information. This is when I step up and set the limits to brainstorm with my kids what games or what kind of information they can consume without harming them mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Parenting with limits for me also means having an agreement of rewards and penalties and boundaries on when mommy cannot be disturb and when there is an urgent need to speak to mommy. “Mommy can I talk to you?” means a personal 1:1 time is required from mommy and I will always honor that to dedicate time to listen.
I learned that parenting is not complicated, parenting from your heart is where you will always get it right because every thought, word and action that you do is rooted and based on love.
I know that every parent and every child is unique and parenting from your heart is where your unique effective parenting style will come out that will work best for your children. You can watch Working Moms Academy’s interview with Azleen Abdul Rahim and discover more about parenting from the heart.
You can also watch my interview with Martine de Luna where I shared more parenting tips, tools and hacks of how I am navigating motherhood, career, life and parenting.
ABOUT WANDA
Wandalyn Tan-Calupig is the Founder of Working Moms Academy. After suffering from burnout in 2014, she is helping stressed and burnt-out working moms find balance and bliss, so moms can “have it all” – personal and professional success. Subscribe to Working Moms Academy’s Youtube channel (bit.ly/YOUTUBEWMA) and find 58+ videos and new content every week that can help you overcome the stress, demand and pressures of everyday life. Working Moms Academy is a platform and community that supports mothers struggling with stress and burnout by providing life tools that education lacks. It is one of the 20 finalists (out of 128 applications) of the Built to Last 2020 Hackathon, The First-ever Virtual Hackathon for Female Founders in South East Asia.
