Fatherly Advice Mothers Can Give

As families are becoming more conventional and the roles of parenting are becoming more blurred, mothers and fathers are finding themselves playing dual roles. Mothers become fathers and vice versa. Though some parenting roles and jobs will always be gender specific, there are plenty of life lessons mothers can give to their children.

And these lessons usually come from the father. Media and entertainment have given us images and situations where a father would give "fatherly" advice to a child about "toughening up", "standing your ground" or "being true to one's own self". But as the modern makeup of the family is constantly changing, we look to the mother to give out such advice.

Let's break down a few barriers and share a few "fatherly" lessons that mothers can provide.

Words Mean a Lot

Teaching your child to speak up is an important trait for children to have. First, it teaches them confidence and it also develops their voice. Speaking and especially listening are skills that will help in the social development of a child. Having a child that can speak their thoughts coherently as well as having the ability to comprehend and interpret the words of others will help a child cognitive skills.

Winning and Losing

Children will play sports. They will play sports hopefully until their college years. Aside from the physical activity and the hand-eye coordination, sports can reveal the character of those who participate in it. Kids will win at the games and matches, but hopefully they will do it graciously. Kids will lose at their respective games and matches, but hopefully they will take it graciously. Winning is about teaching whilst losing is about learning.

Time to Focus

Children will be studying for the majority of their youth. Studying and excelling on tests will be a pattern that will hopefully parlay into other parts of their adult lives. Knowing this fact, teaching a child to focus without pushing them too hard is important. You can’t force a child into their studies, music or sports. But you can celebrate small victories and small improvements along with way. The more positive reinforcement, the more your child will continue on with their studies, activities and hobbies.

Resolution Management

There are some bad parents who want to teach their child how to fight or become combative. This maybe in order to combat bullies or to become bullies themselves. Unless one kid is dangling the other out the window, don't say a word. "As soon as you become involved, they no longer care about a solution. They'll only try drafting you to their side," says child psychologist Anthony Wolf, Ph.D., the author of Mom, Jason's Breathing on Me! The Solution to Sibling Bickering. Train your child to seek fixes and resolution rather than their own interest. Think of how fixes and resolution helps the whole rather than the individual; It will teach your child to be more thoughtful towards others.

Though parents are not at the stage of teaching the “birds and the bees”, there are thousands of lessons parents can teach their children. And now mothers are playing a bigger role, if not the sole in the character building and strengthening of a child’s morale, it’s important for them to understand more lessons to teach their multi-faceted children.

Image credit: Amy Gizienski on Flickr