Getting the Parenting Information You Need
Go to your web browser and type in the term parenting information and you’ll get a gazillion jillion responses of every kind and color. Go to the library and look up “parenting information” in the catalog and you’ll get hundreds of books on every possible aspect of parenting. With all this information, how do you sort it out and find the parenting information you need?
When you’re dealing with a specific issue, it’s pretty easy to find information related to it. If the baby’s teething, you look up teething. If your teen is signing up for driver’s education, you look up driver’s education. In addition to situational topics, there are general areas of information that it is handy to know something about.
That’s the kind of parenting information you want to have on hand before you have questions. You might want to collect a few books, or create a notebook, with this kind of parenting information in it. Collect the information from books, magazines, friends and family, the internet and every other source you can think of. Then you’ll know what to do before something happens.
Emergencies
Learn how to deal with common childhood emergencies. Learn how to do CPR on children. Learn basic first aid techniques and gather parenting information on common childhood illnesses, such as colds, roseola and RSV. Learn what to do if your child has a fever. Find out when to take him to the doctor, when to go to the emergency room and when to keep him away from other children. You cannot prepare for every conceivable emergency, but you can collect parenting information to prepare for the things you will probably encounter.
Skill development
Collect parenting information about skills your child needs to learn. When she is a toddler, collect information about potty training, and teaching her how to use a spoon. During preschool years, find parenting information about teaching numbers, colors, ABC’s and shapes. As your child grows up, you’ll want to know how to make sure he acquires the skills he needs to be an adult, bit by bit.
Learn what skills are taught at what age, like when do you start swimming or music lessons? When do you teach cooking, or car maintenance, of financial management? This is parenting information you’ll probably collect as you go; you don’t need to know about driver’s education when your oldest is five but you do need to know how to prepare her for school.
Activities
A folder full of activity ideas is some of the handiest parenting information you can acquire. Collect vacation ideas, ideas about things to do in your area, craft ideas, and rainy day ideas. Newspapers and magazines have tons of good activity ideas for your file.
One of the advantages parents have today is that there is so much information available. You do have to be a bit discerning and narrow your information search, or you will be on information overload. It’s helpful to have basic parenting information on hand, and you can add new knowledge as you need it.
