For most parents, their child is the most important thing in the world.

They work hard to be able to provide a nice house for them to grow up in, with healthy food in the fridge and good schooling. However, it’s easy for parents to get so caught up in working to provide that they overlook the fact that you, as a parent, are going to be the biggest influence on your child’s behaviour.

For better or for worse, your child will pick up on your habits, decisions, and approaches to conflict and problem solving. So it’s important to be mindful of how you can positively inspire your child to grow in the best way possible. Time is the one thing that you can give your child that you can’t buy and can never get back. It’s a precious resource to be given with intent and care.

Get Creative

Creativity is such an important gift to nurture, and skill for your child to develop. Doing things such as painting, playing music, arts and crafts and playing make-believe with your child will help them grow creatively and spark brain connections.

There are also classes, such as the gifted and talented gate program, you can enrol your child in to help them in their development. Creative thinking is an extremely valuable tool that is becoming more important in our modern world.

Celebrate Achievements

Celebrate their small achievements. We all get so excited seeing our baby’s first step, hearing their first word, and then after a while we can easily forget to celebrate the little milestones of accomplishment along the way.

Simple things like learning to draw shapes, counting numbers in the right order, even climbing that piece of play equipment at the park that maybe they’ve had their eye on for months and can only just reach and climb it now, these are moment that are important to your child. Share it with them.

Visit Art Galleries and Museums

Just as nurturing their creativity is highly important. With that said, broadening their personal experiences and allowing them to soak up new and interesting things (that don’t involve a screen) is equally important. Take your child on outings; visit a museum or art gallery and talk to them about what they like or don’t like, discover their interests and let them explore. A child’s education shouldn’t begin and end at school.

Exercise (And Let Them See It)

Give your child the best start in life you can by inspiring them to live an active and healthy lifestyle. The best way you can do that is by allowing them to see you leading by example. If you work out of a morning, then wait to shower until your child has woken up and seen you sweating it out in your exercise gear. You can also involve your child in physical activities such as walks, bike rides and yoga. Be their role model.

Give Them Free-Time

Allow your child to get bored. This may sounds counterproductive and potentially lead to a big mess, but allowing your child to be bored and needing to entertain themselves will spark their creativity. This is becoming rare in the modern world full of instant entertainment and reward systems.

Take away screens and give them alone time in their rooms. Allow them to explore their creativity alone, whether that’s by listening to music, drawing, dressing up, or writing. This is the space where creativity is born, explored and developed. Give them proper leisure time.

Be The Role Model You Want Them To Have

We all want our children to grow up and exceed what we have done ourselves. That’s the goal of each generation, to improve, however slightly, and move the family and human race forward. If you want your child to grow up with good habits, then you need to display those habits.

If you live your life with a positive outlook, working with determination to better yourself and continue to grow, you will give your child permission to do the same.

It can be hard finding the time in each day to cover what needs to be done at work, and at home, but it’s important to give your child the inspiration to become the best version of themselves they can be. Allow them to know you, learn from you and be inspired.