Nurturing Children
adapted from Domestic Abuse Intervention Project
206 West Fourth Street
Duluth, Minnesota 55806
218-722-2781
LOVE AND CARE FOR YOUR CHILDREN
Trust And Respect
- Acknowledge children's right to have their own feelings, friends, activities and opinions
- Promote independence
- Allow for privacy
- Respect children's feeling for other parent
- Believe your children
Provide Emotional Security
- Talk and act so that children feel safe and comfortable expressing themselves
- Be gentle
- Be dependable
Provide Physical Security
- Provide food, shelter, clothing
- Teach personal hygiene and nutrition
- Monitor safety
- Maintain a family routine
- Attend to wounds
Provide Discipline
- Be consistent
- Ensure rules are appropriate to age and development of child
- Be clear about limits and expectations
- Use discipline to give instruction, not punish
Give Time
- Participate in your children's lives: activities, school, sports, special events and days, celebrations, friends
- Include your children in your activities
- Reveal who you are to your children
Encourage And Support
- Be affirming
- Encourage children to follow their interests
- Let children disagree with you
- Recognize improvement
- Teach new skills
- Let them make mistakes
Give Affection
- Express verbal and physical affection
- Be affectionate when your children are physically or emotionally hurt
Care For Yourself
- Give yourself personal time
- Keep yourself healthy
- Maintain friendships
- Accept love
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