Strong Marriages Create Strong Parents
Protecting Your Marriage to Strengthen Your Parenting Skills
Jul 31, 2008
Your marriage should be a priority relationship in your life. According to Gary Ezzo and Dr. Robert Bucknam in On Becoming Babywise [Parent-Wise Solutions, Inc., 2001], your marriage is the most important relationship you have. Strengthening your marriage will create an atmosphere that your children will want to be a part of, and you will in turn be great parents.
Children Rely on Your Marriage
In a family with a strong marriage, children grow up in a stable, secure environment. If children always lose when parents get divorced, then on the flip side, the children always win when their parents have a strong marriage.
Children are very astute and will know when something is wrong between mom and dad. If you are fighting with your spouse, your kids will know. If you instead love and respect your spouse, your kids will again know, and will trust in that security.
Although a strong marriage will not solve all problems with your parenting, why add one more complicating factor? Your children rely on your marriage, so put forth the effort to strengthen and protect your relationship with your spouse.
Strengthening Your Marriage for your Kids
In order to be great parents to your children, take time to strengthen your marriage. Areas to focus on include your communication and decision making.
Communication: Work on how you communicate with your spouse. Be open and honest, and pick your battles. If it is something that is very important to you, then by all means, open the lines of communication and discuss it with your spouse. If it is something that does not matter as much, and will cause a heated discussion, then let it go. Do not say something simply because it crossed your mind. Think before you speak so that you do not unnecessarily hurt your spouse.
Decision Making: Great parenting involves great decision making. Through open, honest communication with your spouse, you will in turn make better decisions. Talk through things together instead of making important decisions alone. This is especially important when deciding things about your parenting. If your children see you making decisions together, they will be less likely to play one parent against another. Also, back up the decisions your spouse makes about your children, even if you disagree. You must be united in your decisions in order to be united in your parenting.
Show your children that you love your spouse, and work on building a strong marriage. Your children will learn from your marriage, so strengthen your communication and decision making skills to help create a safe, secure environment for your children.
 |
