They say it takes a village to raise a child and we as parents are basically isolated villages of exhausted, sleep deprived zombies desperate to make it through life and raise little ones, while making a livelihood, keeping the house clean, maintaining relationships and constantly struggling to catch some rest. One of the biggest challenges of being a parent is shielding your child from bad influence. While people usually think that teenage is the time that kids look up to not so perfect role models and rebel, bad influences can come at any age. Be it a preschooler with too much screen time to a pre-teen wasting time on a personal smart phone and influencing your child to get one too, you will face many challenges in your path and here are some tips to help you get through.

Children learn by example

Children learn by imitating their parents, and thus, to imbibe good values, you need to step up and be better role models to your children. Hard as it is to traverse through adult lives relying on straightforward rules and principles that you advocate for your child, but you have to set the example. Unable to grasp the working of the adult world, if your children see you not living up to the prescribed standards, they will see it as a double standard and call you out when you reprimand them. So, if you are planning on decorating store-bought cupcakes for the next bake sale, make sure you do it in secret else the next time you tell them about the value of hard work, the cupcake issue is going to come back to you.

Reward good behaviour

While punishing a bad behaviour is definitely one way to discipline your child, rewarding a good behaviour is often a greater motivation. Every time your child cleans up his or her room, give an extra cookie. If your kid gives up screen time to play offline, ease up on a designated chore. Teach your kid by rewarding good behaviour so that he or she does not associate you with punishment and tough love only. The tougher you are on your kid, your kid will fear you more and thus, start keeping things from you. This makes them more susceptible to be influenced by their peers.

Build up trust

Always remember that your little human is someone you brought to the world and he or she should be able to trust you. Give your kid the space to be develop as an individual, without controlling and spying. Encourage honesty and stay in the loop but unless you see specific signs that something is wrong, do not intrude as this is a breach of trust. When your kid is in trouble, you want to be the one who is called but if your child cannot trust you, it is more likely that he or she will get the help of the wayward friend you do not approve of.

Parenthood is full of challenges and definitely far from all the cutesy Instagram photos, but it is totally worth all the hard work every time you see your little one taking a big step, or doing something right, filling you with pride and happiness.