How to Be a Patient Parent

Have Realistic Expectations

• No one can practice perfect patience at all times, so keep your expectations of yourself realistic. Instead of striving for perfection, set a goal to improve your responses to -- interactions with -- your kids. Improving your patience will take time as you make efforts to replace impatient reactions with more calm patterns. Adopting new habits can take approximately two months, depending on factors such as your overall emotional health and motivation level.

Care for Yourself

• Your emotional and physical health play a major role in how patient you can be as a parent. To ensure you have the emotional energy for patient parenting, take care of yourself, advises psychologist Laura Markham, with the Aha! Parenting website. Get enough sleep, exercise regularly, eat a healthful diet, pursue activities you enjoy, including a hobby, and spend relaxing time with family and friends. As you keep yourself centered, it will be easier to practice patience.

Reshape Your Perspective

• The way you view your kids and parenting in general can have a big impact on your patience level, according to an article published by Cornell University Cooperative Extension. Perceiving your kids as spoiled or as your adversaries can make it difficult to be patient with them. Change your perception so that when your children slip up, you won't be surprised, and you can instead help them learn from mistakes. It̵7;s also helpful to approach parenting with a long-term perspective to help it feel more manageable. The struggles of today will probably not continue to be difficult in a month or a year. Your children won̵7;t always need your help to bathe or to manage their toys, so realizing that many current battles are temporary might help you weather the daily obstacles with more patience.

Plan to Succeed

• Increasing your patience requires a plan to succeed. Start by adopting an attitude of confidence in your ability to be more patient. Adopting this attitude can work as a self-fulfilling prophecy, making it more likely you will be more patient. Plan your days to ensure you̵7;re not overwhelmed, because stress can make it difficult to be patient, advises Cornell University Cooperative Extension. Make a plan for how you will respond to your kids, too. For example, you might strive to take a few deep breaths to center yourself before responding to your kids in times of stress instead of barking out orders.

Use Consistency to Create Stability

• Structure, routine and consistency in your family can make it easier to be patient. Set rules and attach consequences for breaking rules and then maintain these boundaries consistently. This structure will help your kids learn and respect the boundaries, making it less likely they will stray outside of them, states the University of Alabama Parenting Assistance Line. When life gets stressful, your consistency creates stability that make the stress easier to manage, because your kids won̵7;t push boundaries and you won̵7;t have to respond to misbehavior.