Parenting With Your Partner
Once you've had a baby, you and your partner will be facing new challenges - and it's important that you work as a team.
Here are some ideas for supporting your partner and effectively bonding with your baby:
- Talk with your partner as often as possible about your feelings, what you need, and how you can best be involved in caring for your baby.
- Support your partner while she is breastfeeding. Bring her a glass of water or milk. Ask her if she needs a pillow.
- It’s normal to feel anxious about taking care of your baby at first. You're not the only new parent who has felt this way. Spending lots of hands-on time with your baby will help you get more comfortable. You probably didn't feel comfortable the first time you drove a car, either.
- Put your baby on your chest and spend time together. Children need to feel close to both parents.
- Change your baby's diaper, give her a bath, dress, sing, dance, or just cuddle your baby. Play with him as often as possible. It's OK to choose toys you like to play with, too.
- Try to get enough sleep, be physically active, go for walks as a family, and eat healthy foods.
- Ask other parents for advice. They've been through this.
- Get involved with other parents - meet with people from prenatal classes, work, or from a new parenting class.
- Remember - all parents make mistakes.
- Enjoy each phase of parenthood. It won’t come around again with this child.
- Plan to have time for activities other than parenting. Try tag team parenting - allow one parent to be "off" sometimes.
HEALTH AND SAFETY
- Always think safety first. Ask yourself “What is the safest thing to do here?”
- Always wash your hands before playing with or caring for your baby.
- Never leave your baby alone, even for a second, on a change table, counter, chair, or couch, or in the bath.
- Never leave your baby unattended with your pet.
- Never shake or hit your baby.
Resources and Links:
HealthLink BC: Effective Parenting: Discipline
Public Health Agency of Canada Parenting Resources
Attachment Parenting - Cooperative Parenting
-
One of the first commandments God gave to Adam and Eve was to "be fruitful and multiply. " In earlier generations, young people were expected to marry for the purpose of starting a family, and those couples could expect to spend much of the
-
In many cultures, the mother is the cornerstone of a family. She helps maintain a relationship with the husband, a proper environment for the children and happy interactions between all family members. The way to be the best mother is to adhere to al
-
Manipulative people are difficult to deal with because they have practiced ways to exert control. It is even more difficult when that manipulative person is your father, someone who has probably been an authority figure for most of your life. Since a
