Excerpted and adapted from a tip sheet prepared by the Center for Early Education and Development (CEED), College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

In a very basic way, infant mental and physical health are the foundations of each new generation. Infant Mental Health has been defined in varying ways. The following examples provide current definitions of Infant Mental Health:

• According to the Infant Mental Health Services Feasibility Study conducted by CEED, the Infant mental health is the optimal growth and social-emotional, behavioral, and cognitive development of the infant in the context of the unfolding relationship between infant and parent.
• Infant mental health focuses on the social and emotional well-being of infants and their caregivers and the various contexts within which caregiving takes place. Infant mental health, therefore, focuses on relationships; infant development is conceptualized as always embedded within emergent, active systems of relationships. By definition, the infant is born into a social world.
• Infant mental health is rooted in the understanding that developmental outcomes emerge from infant characteristics, caregiver-infant relationships, and the environmental contexts within which infant-parent relationships take place. From an infant mental health perspective, parents are looked at as interacting participants in the developmental process, which does not permit a dichotomization of nature and nurture. Winnicott captured the essence of the caregiver-infant relationship when reflecting upon his prior comment that there was no such thing as a baby, meaning that if you set out to describe a baby, you will find you are describing a baby and someone. A baby cannot exist alone but is essentially part of a relationship.
• The field of infant mental health may be defined as multidisciplinary approaches to enhancing the social and emotional competence of infants in their biological, relationship, and cultural contexts. Infant-caregiver relationships are the primary focus of assessment and intervention efforts, not only because infants are so dependent upon their caregiving contexts but also because infant competence may vary widely in different relationships.
• Alicia Lieberman [Professor of Psychology at UC-San Francisco and Director of the Child Trauma Research Project, and Senior Psychologist at the Infant-Parent Program, San Francisco General Hospital] has suggested a set of principles that define the field of infant mental health. Two [of Lieberman's 5] principles look at how we frame and carry out interventions.

1) Infant Mental Health practitioners make an effort to understand how behaviors feel from the inside, not just how they look from the outside.

2) The intervener's own feelings and behaviors have a major impact on the intervention.

Sources

1. Bell, R.Q. (1968). A reinterpretation of the direction of effects in studies of socialization. Psychological Review, 75, 81-95.

2. Rheingold, H.L. (1968). The social and socializing infant. In D.A. Goslin (Ed.) Handbook of socialization: Theory and Research. Chicago: Rand McNally.

3. Shapiro, T. (1976). A psychiatrist for infants? In E.N. Rexford, L.W. Sander, & T. Shapiro (Eds.), Infant psychiatry (pp. 3-6). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

4. Winnicott, D.W. (1987). The child, the family, and the outside world. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. (Original work published in 1964).

5. Zeanah, C.H (Ed.). (2000). Defining infant mental health. The Signal, 8 (1-2), 9.
6. Zeanah, C.H. & Zeanah, P.D. (2001). Towards a definition of infant mental health. In C.H. Zeanah Handbook of infant mental health (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

7. Lieberman, A. (1998). A perspective on infant mental health. The Signal, 6 (1), 11-12.

Source: Minnesota Association for Children's Mental Health

Using the best parenting strategies for highly sensitive children will help them blossom. Here you’ll explore ideas specifically designed to meet your child’s needs. Nurture your highly sensitive child with these parenting strategies.

The term “highly sensitive” refers to extreme emotional or physical sensitivity—in many cases, these kids are hypersensitive to both. You might have a highly sensitive son or daughter if they:

• Feel and empathize with others’ emotions
• Are perfectionistic
• Question almost everything
• Don’t handle change well
• Startle easily
• Prefer quiet play
• Are influenced by their environment
• Are sensitive to pain
• Have frequent emotional meltdowns (crying, yelling, tantrums)
• Struggle with fabric, tags, seams
• Are intelligent
• Experience life deeply

Engage with your child and observe when, why, and how they react to their world. That way, you can determine what parenting strategies for highly sensitive children will help your child with their unique sensitivities and strengths.

A Strategy for Parenting Highly Sensitive Children: It’s All About Your Perspective

How you see your child affects what you communicate and how they respond. Sensitive kids aren’t trying to annoy you. What looks like an overreaction is a genuine response to feelings, sensations, and experiences that are bigger than they are. Highly sensitive children have a nervous system that is unusually reactive and aware. (Healy, 2011). They’re hardwired to be exactly the way they are.

When you see your child’s sensitivity is a gift, you’ll look at them in new, more appreciative ways. They have unique gifts such as strong empathy, deep love, creativity, and intelligence.

Perhaps the most helpful perspective for the parents of a highly sensitive child is that there is nothing wrong with them. Extreme sensitivity isn’t a mental disorder or an illness, nor is it a problem to be fixed; however, these children do have specific needs that you, as their parent, can help meet.

Learn the Needs of Your Highly Sensitive Child

These kids need to be accepted for who they are. Rather than trying to reduce their levels of sensitivity and intensity, work with them as they are, using the strengths, talents, and interests they have.

Highly sensitive kids need their parents’ support and respect. Resist the urge to apologize to parents, teachers, and strangers on behalf of your child. When your child hears you apologizing for the way they are, they’ll be devastated.

For all the times when your child becomes overwhelmed with emotions (theirs or others’) without the safety of nearby parents, they need to be able to self-soothe to calm down. Help them learn to breathe slowly and deeply, find one focal point to concentrate on to redirect their attention, walk away from the commotion (safely), and other techniques they can draw from.

Downtime is vital for kids who easily become wound up. Highly sensitive kids need a quiet, calm place they can go to self-soothe. Let your child help decorate the space and equip it with soothing activities like drawing supplies, puzzles, stress balls—anything that feels good and comforts your child.

Once you’ve discovered what your child needs for nurturing and support, you can use specific strategies to help your child.

Highly Sensitive Child Parenting Strategies

If you’re a parent of a highly sensitive child, your mission isn’t to change your child but rather to work with them to both teach them how to handle the intensity of their life and to help them thrive with their gifts. Some ways to do it include:

• Keep a calm, soothing home environment.
• Establish predictable, consistent routines.
• Help them to gradually tolerate change at home, school, and elsewhere by letting them practice accepting change in a safe manner and slow pace.
• Learn their triggers and minimize exposure to them.
• Rather than dismissing or scolding your child for an emotional outburst, acknowledge it calmly after it’s done; then, discuss the strong emotional reaction with your child.
• Provide opportunities for your child to have positive social experiences as they enhance growth.
• Have two or three of the same blankets and/or stuffed animals so you can wash them. Keep rotating them so they always have the same laundered scent.
• Disciplining a highly sensitive child is essential for them to grow and mature into responsible adults. Provide clear limits, gentle structure, and logical consequences. Never scold or yell.
• Offer them simple choices to empower them.

Parenting a highly sensitive child can bring many frustrations. When you use the above highly sensitive child parenting strategies as well as some of your own, you’ll enjoy your sensitive child’s wonderful strengths, abilities, and compassion.

You may also like 5 Tips for Parenting a Strong-Willed Child.

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Deciding how to discipline an autistic child is no small task. The autism spectrum involves challenging behaviors like anger, aggression, extreme mood swings, and intense meltdowns. Because of their unique needs, children with autism must be disciplined a bit differently than children not on the autism spectrum. Therefore, it’s important to know how to discipline a child with autism.

There are multiple discipline approaches for kids with autism, not all of them equally sound. Some discipline methods that parents use include:

• No discipline
• Punishments, including physical punishments
• Use of rules and negative consequences
• Positive reinforcement

Before going further, we can knock a couple of these discipline methods out of the way. Punishments, especially physical ones, are never recommended for any child. They are harsh, confusing, and they don’t teach children positive ways to behave. Punishments are ineffective and hurtful.

Opposite of punishment is providing no discipline at all. Despite myths to the contrary, autistic children can understand discipline. They need to learn proper behavior just as their peers do, and they learn through methods that meet their needs.

While children with autism can and should be disciplined, it’s imperative to separate behavior that is an inherent part of their autism from intentional actions. Kids should never be disciplined for things like making noises, repeating phrases or words, rocking, and more. These are behaviors that can’t be extinguished, and trying to discipline them away will be upsetting, confusing, frustrating, and hurtful to your autistic child and even to you.

See: Autism Spectrum Disorder Signs, Symptoms, Diagnosis

Learning how to discipline an autistic child involves knowing not only the types of discipline choices but which ones to use for your own child.

Deciding How to Discipline Your Autistic Child: Go Deeper than the Behavior

These four key elements are essential in learning how to discipline a child on the autism spectrum (Wallace, 2018):

• Identification
• Understanding
• Management
• Prevention

First, identify your child’s behavior, and describe it in detail. What, specifically, is your child doing that is undesirable? Knowing exactly what’s going on will help you respond the way your child needs you to.

Then, expand your description to the circumstances around it. What time of day is it? Is your child having a meltdown or acting aggressively because they’re hungry? Tired? Stressed? Transitioning from afternoon to evening? What else is going on? What is the setting? Are there other people involved? Identifying what happens before your child misbehaves will help you take the next step.

Armed with objective facts, you can begin to understand what underlies the misbehavior. Go deeper and uncover the purpose of the behavior. Often in autism, misbehavior is an attempt at communication. Your child might be trying to tell you something but doesn’t have the words. This can frustrate them and make them feel unheard. Another possibility is that your child is reacting to physical sensations or sensory overstimulation. Tending to these will allow the misbehavior to wane.

Once you identify and understand triggers that are contributing to the behavior, you can operate from a perspective of empathy and respond constructively to what your child is doing. The calm management of behaviors is the next step in how to discipline an autistic child.

Managing the Misbehavior of Autistic Children

Knowing how to discipline a child with mild autism as well as more serious autism is understanding how to manage their misbehavior. One approach is to make rules and have consequences for breaking them. For this approach to work, parents need to follow certain guidelines:

• Rules must be extremely clear with no room for interpretation. Children with autism are literal, black-and-white thinkers. Stating, “Don’t jump on the couch,” means that they can jump on anything else.
• Consequences also must be clear and used consistently, every time a rule is broken.

Positive reinforcement is a highly recommended form of discipline for children on the autism spectrum This type of discipline teaches children to understand what behaviors are desirable and encourages them to do more of it.

Build on positive behaviors kids already use. When you catch them being good, reinforce the behavior with praise. Token boards add a visual, concrete element to positive reinforcement. The board sports a picture of a reward the child wants to earn and has pouches for kids to place little tokens you give them for positive behavior. When they’ve earned enough tokens, they receive the reward.

Prevent Negative Behaviors in Children with Autism

Discipline wouldn’t be complete if it stopped with consequences or positive reinforcement. Teaching kids with autism ultimately involves preventing misbehavior from happening in the first place (or at least greatly minimizing it).

Return to your identification and understanding of the misbehavior. Use your observations to make some changes. Creating an environment that is calming, consistent, predictable, responsive, and rewarding is how to discipline an autistic child.

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Bad parenting looks like a mom or a dad of any ethnic and socioeconomic background treating their children very poorly, sometimes even abusively. A definition of bad parenting is straightforward: Bad parenting involves a consistent pattern of harmful actions inflicted on someone’s own children.

Of all the adults in a child’s life, parents are the most important. From birth through the end of high school and beyond, parents influence their kids’ development. Parenting has either a positive or negative impact on:

• Goals and goal setting
• Drive and capability
• Values
• Outlook
• Perspective
• Demeanor
• Character
• Attitude
• Treatment of others
• Actions
• Self-esteem and self-confidence
• Mental health

To fully conceptualize the damage done by poor parenting, it’s important to know just what bad parenting does to kids of all ages.

Effects of Bad Parenting: What Happens to Kids?

Kids can suffer in numerous ways because of bad parenting. One thing to keep in mind is that bad parenting is not the same as bad parenting moments. Bad parenting inflicts harm and lasting damage. In contrast, bad parenting moments are isolated events. No one is perfect, and good parents make harmless mistakes.

Among the effects of bad parenting are defiant behaviors, mental health problems, social and relationship difficulties, and negative thoughts and emotions. A sampling of bad parenting effects:

• Poor growth and development
• Poor health
• Aggression
• Violent behavior
• Misbehavior
• Delinquency
• Criminal behavior
• High-risk behaviors (such as having sex, substance use or abuse, recklessness, etc.)
• Lack of impulse control
• A sense of entitlement
• Poor school performance
• Lack of social skills
• Withdrawal
• Isolation
• Risk of becoming a bully
• Risk of being bullied
• Low resilience
• Inability to deal with problems
• Poor overall mental health and functioning
• Feelings of inadequacy
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Fear
• Hypervigilance
• Chronic high stress
• Low self-esteem, self-confidence
• Self-harm
• Difficulty regulating emotions
• Borderline personality disorder
• Lack of empathy
• Relationship problems
• Poor coping skills

Bad parenting can do a great deal of damage that can be lifelong. What kind of parent does this to children?

How Bad Parenting Harms Kids

Bad parenting lacks essential elements that kids require for healthy development:

• A positive parenting style
• Affection
• Compassion
• Kindness
• Patience
• Consistent discipline

Not only do children miss these positive elements, but they also face serious deficits caused by bad parenting. Certain parenting styles and traits are harmful to kids. Authoritarian, permissive, neglectful, and overprotective parents risk injuring their children in lasting ways.

Authoritarian parents are controlling and strict to a fault. These moms and dads don’t allow their kids to make decisions or have choices. They don’t trust their kids to say or do things right, and they communicate their distrust to the kids. Rigid and inflexible, they bark orders and scold harshly for any mistake, no matter how small. Verbal and physical abuse can be part of authoritarian parenting. This parenting style is oppressive and punitive.  

Permissive parents are the opposite of authoritarian parents. They neither discipline their kids nor provide a sense of stability and safety. There is very little structure in such a household; rules, if there are any, are vague and lax. This type of parenting creates kids who can’t function well outside the home.

Neglectful parenting is hands-off parenting. Parents avoid their kids and fail to meet their basic needs. These parents provide poor supervision. Further, they’re unresponsive and fail to give love and affection. Even young children must fend for themselves. In addition to ignoring basic needs, parents also fail to teach important skills like social skills and coping skills. Neglectful parenting assumes kids can function in the same capacity as adults.

Overprotective parenting treats kids as if they are fragile, vulnerable, and incapable. Such parents pamper their kids excessively, catering to their every whim to avoid conflict. An overprotective parenting style leads parents to shelter kids from every danger, real or imagined. They are quick to fix problems so their kids don’t struggle. Overprotective parents become overinvolved parents. They make decisions and choices for kids, robbing them of critical thinking skills and independence.

Some bad parenting doesn’t fit into one of the above categories; they might fall into multiple categories or none of them. Parents in this category neither value nor respect their children. They’re dismissive of their children’s feelings and indifferent to their achievements. When kids are experiencing problems, parents show no support, yet they are quick to criticize in all situations and even in front of others. Public shaming is a common practice in bad parenting. Rather than listening and encouraging, parents give orders. The home environment is rife with conflict, partly because discipline is inconsistent.

Bad parenting comes in many forms. The common theme of all bad parenting is the long-lasting harm that comes to kids because of it. Knowing what parenting behaviors are harmful can help you avoid using them with your own kids.

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Gay teen suicide and suicide attempts are a serious problem as lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are four times more likely than their straight peers to attempt suicide and transgender people have the most suicide attempts of all. Considering suicide is the second leading cause of death in youth ages 10-24, these risks are not to be taken lightly.

Gay Suicide Risk Factors

Gay suicide risk factors often center around rejection and violence. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth are frequently bullied, harassed and rejected and this may partly explain their abnormally high suicide rate. Being rejected by family is a major risk factor in gay suicide. When an LGBTQ youth is victimized by violence is also increases the likelihood of a suicide attempt.

An additional gay teen suicide risk factor is being transgender and Black or Hispanic youth are two times more likely to attempt suicide when compared to White youth.

Gay Suicide Statistics

Gay suicide statistics show how vulnerable LGBTQ teens are to suicide and suicide attempts. While only some areas have been studied, the gay suicide statistics we do know include:

• Youth questioning their sexuality are three times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers.
• Suicide attempts by lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning youth are typically more serious and are four-to-six times more likely to result in injury, poisoning or overdose which requires treatment from a professional, compared to their straight peers.
• Nearly half of all transgender people have thought about taking their own lives.
• 25% of transgender people have attempted suicide.
• Lesbian, gay and bisexual youth who come from highly rejecting families are 8.4 times more likely to have attempted suicide than their lesbian, gay and bisexual peers who report no or low levels of rejection.
• Each episode of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender victimization (such as physical or verbal harassment or abuse) increases the risk of self-harming, on average, by 2.5 times.

Where to Get Help – Gay Suicide Hotline

While gay suicide statistics and risk factors may make the situation look bleak, it's important to know that help is available for LGBTQ youth who are thinking about suicide. The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention to LGBTQ youth ages 13-24. This gay suicide hotline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

• The Trevor Lifeline: 1-866-488-7386

The Trevor Project also offers online chat and text messaging suicide prevention services.

• TrevorChat is available from 3:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. EST daily.
• TrevorText: 202-304-1200 is available Fridays from 4:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. EST.

Sexually abused children usually need professional help in dealing with a range of behavioral problems. Here are some things parents should be aware of.

Child victims can exhibit a range of behaviors, including suffering from nightmares, fears, regression in self care skills, sexual acting out and repeating or "replaying" the actual sexual abuse incidents with dolls or peers. There is no way to predict which behaviors your child will exhibit.

Children will attempt to process or understand their sexual abuse experience on their own. Therefore, children show various degrees of severity from the effects of sexual abuse. For example, a child fondled by a non-family member could show serious effects of his/her experience, whereas a child involved in an incest experience may show minimal effects. To complicate matters more, children can function well in their day care/school setting but not function well at home and vise versa. As a parent it is your difficult job to judge the seriousness of your child's symptoms and whether your child could be in need of professional counseling.

How to judge the seriousness of your child's behaviors will probably feel confusing. The following are some thoughts and ideas to consider:

1) How long has your child been experiencing the behavior(s)? For example, has the behavior been occurring for a couple days or persisted for weeks?

2) How intense or frequent is the behavior(s)? For example, is your child having nightmares every night or once a week?

3) Is your child having behavioral difficulties at home, school or day care or in all of these settings?

4) Is the behavior(s) interfering with your child's ability to function or get through everyday routines?

5) Is the behavior(s) disturbing or upsetting the everyday routine of your family?

6) Could your child's behavior(s) be a result of a new "stage" of development experienced by most children his/her age and not specifically related to the sexual abuse?

7) Is your child accepting of help from you to change the problematic behavior?

Your child is probably in need of professional counseling and guidance if: behaviors persist over time, are disruptive to either his/her routines or their family's routines, causes difficulty in either the school or daycare setting and he/she resists help from you.

We've discussed ways to tell when your child may need special help but how will you know if you may need special help to cope with your child's sexual abuse? Some things to consider are: if you feel overwhelmed or unable to help your child; when your own childhood issues of sexual abuse resurface because of your child's sexual abuse; and finally when the focus of your child's sexual abuse disrupts your everyday routines and your own emotional needs are not being met.

Professional mental health services will probably focus on resolving your child's problematic behaviors but also reducing the negative effects of the sexual abuse that contributed to the behaviors. You are encouraged to involve yourself in these services to learn how to help your child with their difficult behaviors.

Sources:

• Dane County Commission on Sensitive Crimes
• American Psychological Association

Like adults, children and adolescents can have mental health disorders that interfere with the way they think, feel, and act.

Adolescence can be a difficult time for young people and their parents. Many adolescents experience changes in behaviors and feelings as they struggle to become more independent and develop a sense of individual identity. However, a number of adolescents experience mental health problems that interfere with their normal development and daily life activities. When untreated, mental health disorders can lead to school failure, family conflicts, drug abuse, violence, and even suicide.

Some mental health problems are mild, while others are more severe. Some last for only short periods of time, while others, potentially, last a lifetime.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), reports the following:

• One in five children and adolescents suffer from mental illness severe enough to cause problems in their development and daily life
• Research studies have reported that up to 3 percent of children and up to 8 percent of adolescents in the US suffer from depression
• It is estimated that 2 million children in the US have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• Research studies have found that as many as 13 out of 100 adolescents may develop an anxiety disorder
• Eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, are common among adolescent and young women in the US

It is important to know that help is available. Some mental health problems affecting adolescents require the clinical care of a physician or other healthcare professional. Most adolescents who experience mental health problems return to normal daily lives if they receive appropriate treatment.

Sources:

• National Institute of Mental Health

Many parents seek information about how to discipline a child with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Children who have ODD have extreme behavior problems. They are manipulative and defiant toward authority figures, including their parents. Because they have difficulty managing their emotions, they frequently have severe tantrums. Confrontational, disobedient, and disrespectful, kids with ODD require a special approach to discipline. It’s the nature of the disorder rather than an inherently bad child that causes these intense problems; nonetheless, it’s the child who must be disciplined. Let’s explore how to discipline a child with oppositional defiant disorder.

How to Discipline a Child with ODD—It Starts with Parents

Teaching children with oppositional defiant disorder to behave better and function at home, in school, and elsewhere involves the kids, and includes parents, too. Parent management training teaches specific parenting skills for managing the behavior of children with ODD. In such trainings, parents learn how to effectively respond to their child’s positive and negative behaviors.

Parent management training equips parents with knowledge of how to discipline a defiant child. Reinforcing cooperative and other positive behaviors as well as correctly giving consequences for disobedience are key strategies. In addition, parent trainings often include therapy. The sessions involve parents and child so they can solve specific problems with the help of the therapist.

Disciplining a Child with ODD Can Involve Consequences if Done with Caution

Kids with ODD don’t respond well to discipline methods like warnings, counting to three, or punishments. If they’re used correctly, giving kids with ODD consequences can be effective in helping reduce negative behavior.

A consequence is a logical response to a negative behavior. Kids with ODD respond best when they already know the rules and expectations and what the consequences will be for breaking them. Having rules and consequences posted where kids can access them helps kids with ODD internalize what they are. Further, rules and consequences must be simple and predictable, and never arbitrary or created on the spot.

Knowing what to avoid when disciplining with consequences will help you avoid the power struggles that so often ensue when disciplining a child with ODD. Consider these tips:

• Don’t use empty threats.
• Never make a rule that you don’t intend to follow up on.
• If you mention a consequence, follow through with it so your kids will take you seriously in the future.
• Don’t lecture
• Explain the consequence succinctly and clearly, then don’t allow more discussion
• Avoid yelling
• Don’t negotiate before assigning a consequence
• Avoid making everything into a restriction or confrontation. Let your child be a kid—and be themselves.

These tips work when using consequences with kids with ODD. No matter how well done, though, consequences for an ODD child are ineffective by themselves. Discipline needs a holistic approach that uses positive elements.

To Discipline a Child with ODD, Use Positive Behavior Management

Positive behavior management, or positive behavior support, is a successful approach to disciplining a child with oppositional defiant disorder. Parents learn strategies for this method in parent training, discovering how to respond to behaviors and speaking to their child during discipline.

The idea here is that kids and teens with ODD are more likely to comply with expectations when they can earn something, like a privilege, than when they’re being threatened with the loss of something important to them. This gives kids some power and control and teaches them to make positive choices in the face of anger and frustration.

Key elements of positive behavior support for children with ODD include:

• Establishing clear, simple, and limited expectations/rules and communicating them to your child
• Following through with rules consistently
• Creating privileges for following the rules and communicating them to your child
• Letting your kids have input into what their privileges will be
• Catching your child behaving well
• Being clear and specific when praising and giving privileges
• Acknowledging and celebrating when your child uses strategies to cool down, avoid a tantrum, positively transitions from one activity to the next

In all interactions with your child, have empathy and understanding. Oppositional defiant disorder makes it easy to become irritated or even angry, but remaining focused on your child, your goals for their behavior, and the relationship you want to build (you probably don’t want your child to fear you) will help keep you and your child more positive.

When planning how to discipline your child with oppositional defiant disorder, use the information here as a guide. Above all, though, you are the expert in your own child. While ODD has common features, each child living with it is a unique individual. Know your child’s temperament. Determine their patterns and triggers, and learn what specific discipline approaches work for them. Use guidelines you read and learn about, and tailor them to your own child.

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Parenting quotes help us get through tough parenting dilemmas by bringing common sense, and oftentimes humor, to our plight as parents. You could say that parenting quotes are the perfect parenting guide.

We want the best for our children, and we want to be the best parents for our children. But not everyone grew up in homes with examples of good parenting, forcing us to look outside of our upbringing to do right by our children. This is where parenting quotes, co-parenting quotes, parenting memes, funny parenting quotes and raising children quotes can help. Parenting quotes can teach us many things: what to expect, what to do, and when to laugh on our parenting journey. We hope you find what you're looking for in our collection of parenting quotes below. And remember, parenting fails will happen, but you can recover.

 

Some parenting quotes stand the test of time, for good reason. Like this one about good parenting skills from Dear Abby: "If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders." -- Abigail Van Buren

 

Many parenting quotes teach us important lessons about our own behavior (see also "Good Parenting Qualities and Characteristics You Can Develop"). "Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you." -- Robert Fulghum

 

Parenting quotes remind us to keep a close eye on our words and actions, something good to remember as we develop a parenting philosophy. "As your kids grow they may forget what you said, but won't forget how you made them feel." -- Kevin Heath

 

Some parenting quotes speak of our true job as parents, something that should be taught in Parenting 101 -- teaching them to fly on their own. "There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings." -- Hodding Carter

 

This parenting meme is quite relatable to anyone who's tried to get the kids in the car on time: *Mary Poppins Voice* OK Children! Time to go! [15 minutes later] *Batman Voice* I said let’s go. In a pinch, try reading "Is There a Way to Discipline a Child Who Just Won’t Listen?".

 

Parenting memes are meant for sharing -- especially the true ones, like this one: "Silence is golden. Unless you have a toddler. In that case, silence is very, very suspicious."

 

What is co-parenting? This quote sums up the ideal co-parenting definition: "The best security blanket a child can have is parents who respect each other." -- Jane Blaustone

 

Co-parenting can be quite uncomfortable, but, as this quote says, that discomfort is worth it. "At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child's success is the positive involvement of the parents." -- Jane D. Hull

 

Co-parenting quotes remind us that co-parenting can't become a battle of the gift-givers. "Your children need your presence more than your presents." -- Jesse Jackson.

 

Does this co-parenting quote reset your commitment to your children? "Co-parenting. It's not a competition between two homes. It's a collaboration of parents doing what is best for the kids." -- Heather Hetchler. If you're having trouble with this, perhaps a parenting plan can help you sort it out.

 

Wow. Some co-parenting quotes can really hit home, making you want to rise to the challenge. "This is probably one of the most difficult challenges any parent could face, learning to love the other parent enough to put the children first." -- Iyanila Vanzant. Sometimes co-parenting classes may be in order.

 

Funny parenting quotes might promise a break in the seriousness business of raising children. "I take a very practical view of raising children. I put a sign in each of their rooms: ‘Checkout Time Is 18 Years’" -- Erma Bombeck.

 

Funny parenting quotes make it obvious that you can throw everything you thought you knew about raising children out the window. "Before I married, I had three theories about raising children and no children. Now, I have three children and no theories." -- John Wilmot. Maybe some parenting apps that help you keep it together might benefit you until you get it figured out.

 

Ray Romano says it just about right in this funny parenting quote: "Having children is like living in a frat house - nobody sleeps, everything's broken, and there's a lot of throwing up." If that sounds like your house (but not in a funny way), read "How to Discipline a Child Without Hitting or Yelling".

 

Some parenting quotes about love teach us exactly what to do. "If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others." -- Haim Ginnot

 

Here's a parenting quote about the love we have for our children: "What it's like to be a parent: It's one of the hardest things you'll ever do but in exchange, it teaches you the meaning of unconditional love." -- Nicholas Sparks

 

Stressing that you won't love your second child as much as your first? As this parenting quote on love says, you have nothing to worry about. "A parent's love is whole no matter how many times divided." -- Robert Brault

 

A parenting quote about love can remind us that correcting our children isn't always as important as accepting them. "Your kids require you most of all to love them for who they are, not to spend your whole time trying to correct them." -- Bill Ayers. Read "Do You Really Know How to Discipline Your Child?" to check yourself.

 

Quotes about raising children remind us that the things we cannot see are most important. "Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children." -- Charles R. Swindoll

 

Raising children quotes puts the responsibility of parenting squarely on our shoulders. Parenting is hard, but don't worry. You can do this! "Your children will become what you are; so be what you want them to be." -- David Bly

Child therapy is a type of mental health and behavior therapy that is designed specifically for children and their unique psychological and developmental needs. Typically, professionals providing child therapy work with kids ages three to 11 to help them improve their thoughts, emotional reactions, and behaviors so they can succeed at school, home, and beyond.

Does My Child Need Child Therapy?

When faced with a difficult child, many parents wonder if their child should see a therapist, psychologist, or other professional. Children aren’t yet mature enough to handle certain problems, manage emotions, and always choose appropriate behaviors. Some tantrums and disobedience are normal and don’t warrant child therapy, nor do ordinary stresses. However, there are situations that indicate that it might be time to consider counseling for your child. Child therapy can be useful when:

• Occasional misbehavior becomes a pattern of problem behavior
• Discipline efforts at home and school are no longer effective
• Your child is struggling to adjust to a new situation, such as a new home, new school, or recent parent divorce
• Getting along with other kids is difficult and causing problems for your child
• Your child has experienced a trauma, such as a death in the family, abuse, etc.

Where to Find Therapy for Your Child

“Child therapy” is a broad, somewhat vague term that encompasses numerous techniques, methods, and settings. It’s good for kids and families that there are multiple options, but they can be rather confusing. What follows is an overview of the types of child therapy and a brief description of how each aspect of child therapy works.

You can find therapy for your child in a variety of locations:

• In your home (typically reserved for children and families with extreme mental health needs)
• At school (many schools have counselors that help kids build behavior and social skills and manage emotions)
• Community-based therapy centers or individual counseling offices, both public and private (these provide child therapy individually or in groups; sessions are often 45-60 minutes
• Inpatient services (hospitals and residential treatment centers in which children stay for a period of time)
• Day treatment programs (kids attend programs all day and return home at the end of the day, to return the next day)

School-based and community-based centers or offices are the most common child therapy settings to help any child build skills to navigate their world. Inpatient, day treatment, and other intense treatment centers are reserved for children with severe behavior and emotional problems beyond what mainstream child therapy can address.

How Does Child Therapy Work?

Child therapy sometimes involves only the child. Other times, the child and their family attend sessions together. Depending on the child and the situation, group counseling might be helpful, either with groups of children building similar skills or, less commonly, multiple families are part of the counseling process, too.

Types of Child Therapy

A child therapist chooses from a plethora of methods and counseling approaches. Many are similar to adult therapeutic approaches, but the therapist adapts them to be appropriate for children. Some of the common types of child therapy that your child might experience are as follows.

Applied behavior analysis teaches behavior skills, like social skills and self-management, in real-life settings rather than in a counseling office to make them more relatable.

Behavior therapy helps kids replace problem behaviors with effective new ones.

Cognitive therapy focuses on helping kids change the thoughts that are causing stress and anxiety.

Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) or trauma-focused CBT emphasizes teaching children specific behaviors while also helping them understand how thoughts and behaviors are connected.

Exposure therapy is useful in addressing strong anxieties and phobias and gently helps kids face their fear.

Parent-child interaction therapy counsels parents and child (typically aged three to eight) together to help improve the relationship by teaching parenting and behavior skills.

Play therapy uses toys, sand, games, and other child-friendly activities to let kids express problems, thoughts, and feelings naturally, which allows the therapist to know how to help ("What Is Play Therapy? Definition, Types and Benefits").

Many child therapy techniques can be effective. The thing that makes any approach successful is the therapeutic relationship that forms between the therapist and the child.

In general, therapists use child therapy techniques to teach skills and have kids practice the skills so they can better use them in their lives. While avoiding a barrage of direct questions, they talk openly with kids, ask non-threatening questions to encourage kids to talk about their situation and problems. 

Also, child therapy works by letting kids be kids. They play, draw, and move—within the structure set by the therapist.  These techniques and more are ultimately about fostering communication. It’s communication that leads to positive changes in behavior and emotions, which is quite often the reason for child therapy.

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