Everyone wants their child to be happy and to be successful. And while everyone may have their opinions on how you can do this, there are a few things to keep in mind.
No matter what your intentions may be, if your approach isn’t the right one, your methods may not work correctly. There is no specific set of rules to raising a child to be successful in life, but there most definitely are psychological hacks that can streamline the process of setting your child up for success.
Check out the following 9 ways to ensure you are raising a successful child, according to psychology.
1. Make your child do chores.
Children who don’t have to learn to do things for themselves will continue to depend on others to do things for them. Julie Lythcott-Haims, a former dean at Stanford, explains that when children don’t have to do chores, they are also less likely to understand how to contribute to a team. In turn, they may ultimately be less successful in the long run.
2. Reduce your stress.
According to research, happy parents are far more likely to have happy children. This is true because emotions are very much contagious. And even without that being true, it’s much harder for a stressed and burned-out parent to do everything that needs to be done to ensure their child is successful. Why? Because you cannot continue pouring from an empty cup.
3. Read to them daily.
Thomas Curley observed self-made millionaires for years and what he found was that “Sixty-three percent of those self-made millionaires were required by their parents to read two or more books a month.” The parents of those individuals pushed them to read about everything they could get their hands on and then quizzed them on what they had read. So, get your children started early by reading to them and encouraging them to read as early as possible.
4. Teach grit.
Grit is defined as a “tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals.” Put simply, it means that despite failure, mistakes, and other obstacles, they never give up. In research carried out by the University of Pennsylvania, researchers discovered massive correlations between grit and educational achievement, and success later in life.
5. Demonstrate happy relationships for them.
Studies have shown that when children do not learn the dynamics of healthy relationships and social skills, they often have issues with authority and develop psychiatric problems. One of the best ways to thwart this is to set an example for your children by demonstrating healthy and happy relationships.
6. Teach them math early.
After observing 35,000 preschool children, a meta-analysis discovered that learning math early proves to give a major advantage. Not only does it make math achievement easier for them, but it also gave them an overall advantage towards success.
7. Ensure they have healthy eating and exercise habits.
Proper nutrition and exercise play an integral role in productivity. And much of how we view these habits are based on what we learn in our formative years. So, if you want to help shape your child for success, it’s beneficial to instill good habits early on.
8. Let them fail.
It may be tempting to step in before your child can fail. However, to do so is to rob them of a learning opportunity. You want to prepare your child for real life, and part of that is preparing them for failure and showing them how to overcome it.
9. Cut back on television and screen time.
In a 2011 study, they found that children who watch t.v when they are young have a harder time with communication. Why? Because when they are watching television, the amount of time they communicate with their parents is reduced. “TV co‐viewing produces a relatively detrimental communication environment for young children, while shared book reading encourages effective mother-child exchanges,” the study says.