“A Positive Parenting Habit is a behavior that has been proven to bring out the best in your child.”

Over 90% of what you do, say, and think every single day is habitual. That makes your Habits the most powerful force in your life and that of your child. A Habit can be a self-defeating action or a positive force.

The results of parenting habits often don’t show up until later in a child’s life, that’s why it is important develop Positive Parenting Habits early. Because you are the most influential force in your child’s life, it is critical to make sure your Habits have been proven to give your child the head start he needs for life long success.

How do you know what Positive Parenting Habits are?

That is the million dollar question. Each year there are lists of the best business practices, best hospitals, best doctors, best high schools, best colleges, teachers of the year, even best dressed. By investigating who is on that list, it is possible to identify at least a few of the best practices that put those at the top of the list.

However, for life’s most important job, parenting, you will not find any list of best parents, or, more important, best parenting practices. And yet, there are some methods that have been proven scientifically to make a night and day difference in a child’s life.

Here are three examples of parenting practices that have been proven to make an astonishing difference in a child’s life:

1. “Having chores as a child is one of the only early predictors of positive mental health later in life.”
2. “The wrong kind of praise creates self-defeating behavior. The right kind motivates children to learn.”
3. Children who have learned impulse control as young as 4 years old, do better academically, have better friendships, less conflict and stress, and dramatically higher SAT scores later in life.

Each one of those skills has been researched extensively with thousands of children and proven to make a massive difference in a child’s life. Each one of them can be developed into Positive Parenting Habit.

I am so dedicated to sharing this with you because I didn’t find out about the power of Positive Parenting Habits until my daughter was in the eleventh grade and almost failed High School. By identifying my negative Parenting Habits and replacing them with ones that were proven to bring out the best in children, my daughter not only turned around and graduated from High School, she graduated from college, became a successful manager and now has her own happy family.

I urge you to develop Positive Parenting Habits and make life’s most important job, being a parent, an enjoyable adventure while creating a bright future for your child.