All parents want a healthy and happy child. Sometimes this can be a challenge and there is always the self-doubt that makes you question every decision you’ve ever made. Is my child happy? Will my child grow up to be a happy person? Is there anything I can do better? Here are our top tips for raising a happy toddler.

Be happy

You might not be surprised to know that parents are role models whether they want to be or not. This means that children will lead by example. One of our first tips for raising a happy toddler is to make sure you are happy.

If you’re giving out positive vibes, then it’s likely your child will too. This is where nurture vs nature takes over and happy households are more likely to raise happy children.

Build relationships

Creating meaningful connections will make your toddler feel loved, understood and wanted. It’s not just relationships with parents that are necessary but other family members, friend, neighbors and even pets will improve your toddler’s emotional well-being.

Loving your child on its own is often not enough – your toddler needs to feel the unconditional love. Building a relationship is the easiest way of doing this such as spending time together, laughing, cuddling and eating together will all work towards building that perfect relationship.

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Giving them space

As much as it’s easy to get caught up in smothering your toddler with love, one of the best tips for raising a happy toddler is to give them their own space and allow them to become their own person, deal with issues or even at times get sad.

By leaving your child to deal with these kind of issues on their own teaches them how to cope, a valuable lesson for later in life. Allowing your child to deal with some of life’s frustrations will go a long way to helping them to be happy when their older. That doesn’t mean you can’t help them but try pointing them in the right direction instead of simply providing a solution.

Introduce optimism

Teaching your toddler to see the bright side will prove to be a valuable asset in later years. Countless studies show the difference between pessimistic and optimistic attitudes and it’s no surprise that optimism always wins.

By introducing optimism early on, you may be able to help with the bleak outlook of those teenage years later on.

Give praise

Praising your child will seem second nature and it’s probably safe to say that everything they do will – in your eyes – be amazing, but the only issue with this is the effects it could have later in life. Praising a child for being pretty or clever could have consequence when they don’t feel confident enough to maintain this praise.

That’s not to say that you can’t praise your child but one of the best tips for raising a happy toddler is directing that praise in a more constructive fashion. Praising the effort as opposed to the outcome will help to improve self-esteem and resist the urge to rely on achievement or things that are outside of their control.

Resources:
http://time.com/35496/how-to-raise-happy-kids-10-steps-backed-by-science/
http://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/fear/raising-happy-children/
http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-to-raise-a-happy-child-12-to-24-mo_1492315.bc?page=2

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