Parenting respectfully means treating children with the same importance and respect you would want to be treated with. Respectful parenting is also about parents taking into consideration the perspective of their children as they care for them. You must take into account their role and not treat them as if you need to do everything for them.

 In order to have a respectful relationship with your child, you must allow them to participate every step of the way by taking their opinions seriously and by giving them a voice.

As a result, respectful parenting will help parents want to be the best parents they can be for their children. When parents have more empathy, their parenting will improve.

How to Parent Respectfully

1. Be Authentic in your Communication

Make sure you use your real voice when you speak to your children, no matter their age. You don’t have to use baby talk when you talk to your children. It’s just a matter of speaking a bit slower because they can understand what you say.

2. Ask Questions and Obtain Permission

When asking questions to a child, wait for the child’s response. Give him or her a chance to answer, and before doing anything to a child, tell them what you’re planning. For instance, If you are going to change their clothes, tell them, “I am going to change your clothes now.” It shows respect to let them know what you are doing.

 3. Invite Children to Actively Participate

Let your child take part in their own caregiving activities, such as getting dressed or any other activity you plan to do with them. Give them time to understand what you plan to do with them, provide them with the opportunity to actively participate, and explain what you plan to do.

Encourage them to ask questions, and let them know they may ask any questions at any time.

4. Promote Independent and Self-directed Play

It is important to allow kids to play independently without constantly leading them or interrupting them. Often parents complain that their children have short attention spans, but the truth is that they create those short attention spans by jumping in, interrupting, or changing up what their child or children are doing.

5. Allow your Child to Develop Cognitively and Physically at their own Pace

Unfortunately, we live in a society where we are completely competitive about everything, including which child talks and walks first, eats well, talks in full sentences, etc.

Children are naturally curious and they will discover and learn things in their own time. There is no need to force them or rush them.

It does not mean that you do not introduce your child to new things or that you discourage them from doing things. It means you do not pressure your child to do something just because you think that is what their age should be doing or because your friend’s child is doing it. You should be respectful and understand that their time will come.

6. Foster Intrinsic Motivation

Quite a few people have a difficult time with this topic since it is about praise. There appears not to be any understanding here that we want to encourage intrinsic motivation in our children first, and then extrinsic motivation. We don’t want a child who does something and constantly looks to us for recognition rather than experiencing the intrinsic satisfaction that comes from completing something.

You should acknowledge their effort for the time they spent doing something. What you want to avoid is having a child who relies constantly on others to feel good about themselves.

You don’t want to produce adults who are constantly seeking outside approval. It is for this reason that so many people in our society suffer from mental health problems since they constantly need others’ reassurances.

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 7. All Emotions Should be Acknowledged and Allowed

Accept and acknowledge all emotions from your child. There is no emotion that you have to suppress or fix. Humans have the right to display any emotion they are feeling, and children are no exception.

The important thing is not to try to distract or stop those feelings from happening. Children need to be allowed to express what they feel, encouraged to do so, and told that it is normal.

In order to connect with our children, we need to accept their emotions openly.

It’s important that you teach your children that there is no such thing as a bad emotion and that all emotions are normal.

It’s okay to share with your child when you are sad. You can also say when you’re crying that you are sad about something without having to distract or fix the situation.

8. Be Empathetic and Set Boundaries

Routines appeal to children, and they enjoy knowing what to expect. Children need to understand that parents set limits and boundaries for their safety. As we know, children have a lack of impulse control, so we need to set boundaries that are respectful and purposeful.

The way you parent your child should make them feel that the decisions you make are for a reason. They should understand that certain things may not be appropriate depending on where your child is at in development.

9. Provide Time and Support to Allow Problem-Solving

Rather than step in and solve problems for our children at an early age, we should let them solve their own problems, support them and encourage them, and maybe give them some tips and pointers, rather than always stepping in and solving them for them.

10. Recognize your Role as a Role Model for your Children

Because children are modeling themselves after you, you need to be the best parent you can be. Our kids need to see us model the behavior we want from them.

Parents should be aware of how they act because they are the biggest role models for their children.

Final Thought

Ultimately, everyone deserves respect, and children, from birth, deserve our respect. Never do anything to a child that you wouldn’t do to an adult or an elderly person.

I hope this respectful parenting guide will prove to be helpful.