Parenting is a challenging process and a number of parents feel anxious very frequently. This may cause great harm to their health and apart from that, it may spoil their relationship with others and especially with their children. So, they should take immediate steps for dealing with their anxiety.
Nowadays, the main factor that causes anxiety in parents is the education of their children. Many a times, children may not perform as well as parents expect them to do. But parenting experts point out that every child is unique and so, capacities of children may also vastly differ. Parents often speak about the competitive environment that prevails in every field and so, they expect their children to top in their studies. But they are oblivious of the fact that pressurizing children to perform may produce negative results.
Overreaction of parents
There are parents who overreact when their children do not perform well. When they overreact, they become emotional and so, they may not be able to judge or assess the situations in the right perspective. Therefore, they are likely to commit mistakes. Instead of motivating and encouraging their children, they may bully them and this may also bring negative results. Children may lose their confidence and their performance may dip further. They may lose their focus also.
Is micro-managing good parenting?
Micro-managing the activities and performance may also prove to be detrimental to children’s growth and performance. There are two aspects to this. Firstly, micro-managing may kill the creativity of children. When parents start dictating every step of their children, these kids may lose whatever capabilities they already have. They will begin expecting that their parents must guide them in every step.
Secondly, children expect to have some degree of freedom. Micro-managing may deprive them of this freedom. They may start hating parents in due course of time. Some children may become rebellious also.
Other unproductive parenting steps
One of the most unproductive parenting step is criticizing children for their under-performance or non-performance. This will blunt the self-confidence of these children.
Another unproductive strategy parents may adopt is to expect very high performance from children. When unachievable goals are set, children will start doubting their capabilities. They may get discouraged and this may sap their enthusiasm. Their performance may get a beating due to this.
Parental anxiety may induce anxiety in children
If parents frequently become victims of anxiety, children may also become prone to be affected by the problem of anxiety. If they develop this problem, it may further cause anxiety in parents. So, this may become a vicious cycle.
Tips for parents to deal with their anxiety problem
Parenting experts suggest that parents should adjust their expectations to suit the capabilities of their children. They should always be flexible in their approach because they cannot expect their children to perform well on a consistent basis.
When parents find themselves over-reacting, they should control themselves and correct their behaviors. Parents should have utmost faith in their children and allow them enough freedom. Above all, they should not impart into children the attribute of feeling anxious for trivial things.