Also, there’s no method to be constant when we’re doing it this way! Consequences are solely effective if they’re used sparingly and within the context of the other core parts of the wholesome parenting tree. As a parent, considered one of your major jobs is to raise kids with the abilities and knowledge they want to grow up and stay a happy, fulfilling life. That means nurturing the behaviors that will assist them thrive and correcting the ones liable to carry them again. An ounce of prevention is also value a pound of cure (or consequences), so throughout occasions that might be more boring or difficult for youngsters, plan novel and engaging activities for them.
An setting that is protected and permits them to be creative, learn, grow, and be liked unconditionally can help them thrive. Some dad and mom may think that the only factor preserving their kids from behaving poorly is the worry of punishment. Discipline is indeed necessary, and you may need guidelines (and honest consequences for breaking them), however some research exhibits that youngsters respond better to reward than they do to discipline. If you reward more than you punish, it may allow your baby to learn what is predicted of them and select constructive conduct as an alternative.
Parenting practices can vary broadly across cultures, and it’s crucial to find approaches that respect cultural values while selling constructive family dynamics. Permissive conduct, for instance, might be extra common in some cultures, but therapy might help mother and father discover a steadiness that works for their household. Reduced family conflict and stress are natural outcomes of improved communication and emotional regulation. When members of the family have the instruments to express their wants and emotions in wholesome methods, conflicts turn into much less frequent and less intense.
Family conduct solutions are within attain, and taking that first step in the direction of in search of help may be the start of a beautiful transformation for your family. Let’s not forget about stress administration and self-care for fogeys. Parent habits therapy recognizes that taking care of your self is a vital part of being a great mother or father. Whether it’s training mindfulness, taking a soothing tub, or having fun with a interest, self-care helps dad and mom recharge and method parenting challenges with renewed vitality and patience. Speaking of residence, that’s where the rubber really meets the street.
Becoming a more acutely aware, mindful father or mother involves managing your own reactivity and feelings, so you can construct a deeper connection together with your youngsters and create a extra peaceable home environment. Kids are hardwired to want constructive attention and emotional connection. When they do not obtain it, they search it out in negative ways, and fogeys are confronted with energy struggles, whining and meltdowns.
Prioritizing open communication, setting boundaries, and providing a nurturing environment contribute to elevating children with a robust foundation for positive progress and improvement. Positive parenting can start at any age, even when your youngsters are still very younger or infants. When you employ constructive parenting strategies early, you assist your youngster really feel near you. This helps your baby to really feel and present take care of others as they develop. Doing the identical things in your parenting daily builds belief with your youngster. This also helps your baby study good conduct and optimistic habits, which may last as they grow up.
Adolescence is also characterised by heighted dangers for mental distress and thrill looking for behaviours, and behavioural patterns fashioned in this interval usually persist into later life31. If a resilience factor can protect adolescents from developing mental sickness or sure behaviours, it may also profoundly scale back their danger of growing such conditions in later life31. This study provides to the evidence that optimistic parenting may be one such protective issue. The programme is operationalized with a trainers manual, session plans, USB with slides and video clips, and is delivered by licensed practitioners to groups of up to families.
It offers a safe base from which youngsters can discover the world, knowing they have a loving and supportive presence to depend on. It creates a sense of belief, permitting kids to develop healthy attachments and develop a constructive sense of self. Moreover, a robust parent-child relationship enhances communication, cooperation, and understanding between both parties, resulting in a extra harmonious family dynamic. Positive parenting focuses on nurturing a supportive and inspiring environment for youngsters.
The long-term results can include an increased capacity to handle stress, reduced anxiousness, and improved academic performance. Research from Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler, founding father of the college of individual psychology, set the stage for positive parenting within the 1900s. He particularly explored the position of parenting in the prevention of future psychological problems — and how constructive parenting helps youngsters thrive. Parents who are unfamiliar with positive parenting strategies are often surprised after I discourage them from using rewards. After all, rewards sound constructive, but the reality is they do more harm than good and may lead to a significant dose of entitlement down the street.
Every time the youngsters followed directions or acted kindly toward each other, the parents supplied praise or a small reward, like additional playtime. This strengthened the children’s constructive behaviors and motivated them to repeat them. Employing effective communication strategies ensures that you simply join with your youngster on a deeper level. Using age-appropriate language lets you convey our message in a way that’s easily understood and relatable. Encouraging the expression of thoughts and feelings creates a protected space in your baby to share their experiences. Additionally, setting apart devoted time for dialog demonstrates a commitment to actively listening and understanding their perspectives, fostering a way of trust and openness.
Prioritizing being in the moment along with your child this manner can be an instance of aware parenting. Positive parenting can be as simple as cuddling or talking to your infant. Find some ideas for implementing positive parenting with your toddler under. In a 2014 nationally consultant survey of attitudes about spanking, 65 p.c of ladies and seventy eight percent of males ages agreed that children generally have to be spanked (Child Trends Databank, 2015a). Preconception and prenatal care The steps ladies take with their health care suppliers before becoming pregnant can promote healthy being pregnant and start outcomes for each mothers and babies.
By implementing a few of these ideas, you’ll be properly on your approach to positive parenting aficionado very quickly. Using empathy and persistence helps strengthen the bond between parents and kids. These qualities help healthy emotional progress in kids, allowing them to thrive. Empathy and patience are essential in positive parenting.
Zero to Three offers videos, graphics and articles that will assist you with Positive Parenting methods. They additionally present how Positive Parenting can help develop your child’s life skills. If you get pleasure from podcasts, try Little Kids, Big Questions, a podcast series for fogeys. On the opposite hand, watch out not to provide 100 warnings or empty threats, or else the warning loses that means.
By working towards light parenting and setting firm limits, you information your youngster whereas guaranteeing they know they are valued and safe. Parenting is doubtless certainly one of the most rewarding yet challenging journeys. Every father or mother wants to boost happy, confident, and well-behaved children. But with a lot advice out there, it’s exhausting to know what really works. We’ve compiled 10 confirmed parenting strategies which are sensible, efficient, and backed by specialists.
It’s essential to set limits along with your toddler in a realistic means. If your kiddo cries whenever you put her to mattress, empathize and validate her feelings. ” exhibits your youngster that bedtime isn’t a punishment and that you simply understand her frustration, advises Mahalli.
If they’re not getting a constant message, they have no idea how to behave. And they decide that by what was and wasn’t okay yesterday and the day earlier than. Here’s the thing — we’re not a policeman and performing like one may be draining.
Parents are probably the most influential and optimistic position fashions in a child’s life, so make positive you are setting a good example. Permissive parenting is usually outlined by an absence of agency rules or steering for kids. A father or mother may even see the child as extra of a good friend, and their conduct will usually reflect that relationship. Parents using the permissive style may be general very tolerant and accommodating when it comes to what the kid needs to do. With this style, the dad and mom may be caring and out there, however they might not assist children with growing optimistic habits or good behavior.
Many websites provide free printables, such as charts and checklists, designed to assist positive parenting. These instruments can assist parents in monitoring their child’s progress and sustaining constructive habits at home. By being supportive, listening, and gently guiding, dad and mom see happy effects.
You principally tell your child and whoever else is current (spectators) what you noticed your baby do or say that was positive. As you navigate the ups and downs of parenting, you’ll inevitably face challenges that check your persistence and push your positive parenting boundaries. In this part, we’ll sort out some widespread hurdles and share sensible solutions to maintain you on observe. When we encounter negative conduct from our children, it’s natural to feel pissed off and need to right them quickly. However, analysis has proven that punishment or rewards can really exacerbate the problem and result in extra misbehavior in the lengthy term.
Supportive parents at all times have their child’s greatest pursuits at coronary heart. He feels liked, affirmed, and empowered to make the changes you are suggesting. Your child can then focus on what you are attempting to teach because he isn’t so busy feeling dangerous about himself. AAP’s Healthy Children website offers info on feeding, nutrition, and fitness for all developmental phases from infancy to younger maturity. Focus on the areas that need the most consideration quite than making an attempt to address everything suddenly. Take trip from parenting to do things that will make you cheerful.
Positive parenting is constant, empathetic, empowering, nurturing, and guiding (Lonczak, 2019). At the guts of positive parenting lies the creation of a deep and meaningful bond between parents and their youngsters. By emphasizing open communication, empathy, and understanding, positive parenting fosters a sense of belief and emotional security. Children feel valued and cherished, resulting in a stronger child-parent connection that lasts a lifetime. Parenting is all about constructing a connection along with your child in order that they’ll want to cooperate with you. One method to do this is by utilizing optimistic discipline techniques, which assist youngsters feel loved and appreciated.
The constructive parenting approach is designed to help your youngsters make their very own selections. Your job is to encourage and assist them, as they follow these skills. I, then again, define constructive parenting as a toolbox of parenting strategies that you must use to teach your child and handle your child’s habits.
It’s important to supply guidance and support while allowing your child to take on new challenges. Celebrate their successes and offer encouragement once they face setbacks. By nurturing their independence and responsibility, you might be equipping them with the skills they should thrive on the earth.
Using optimistic parenting strategies can help them really feel extra supported. These effects can transcend the parent-child relationship, too. Research exhibits that positive parenting techniques help kids take initiative in social settings and have positive emotions toward interacting with others. Every parent knows (or learns along the way) that discipline is on the core of elevating kids. While we all wish to think about that our children are one of the best behaved youngsters on the planet, the truth is that each baby will go through phases the place they act out and push boundaries. It is a very normal part of childhood and adolescence, but it may possibly positively be frustrating for the dad and mom.
Evaluate problems in these areas, and the way they could be influencing your loved ones life. Whenever potential, find ways to deal with these difficulties in your life more effectively, so they will not intrude along with your parent-child relationships. PAUSE BEFORE YOU REACTIf you need to know how to be a peaceful father or mother, attempt to remind yourself not to react the second your baby says or does one thing that gets under your skin. As quickly as you are feeling yourself getting angry or impatient, make sure your youngster is safe after which remove yourself from the state of affairs and take a quantity of deep breaths. When you’re feeling your coronary heart fee returning to regular, think about the state of affairs that simply occurred and your reaction to it. Is your youngster legitimately misbehaving, or is he or she feeling overwhelmed?
This helps toddlers develop effective communication skills and higher manage their emotions. When mother and father implement constant limits, toddlers usually tend to understand and respect the boundaries set for them. This consistency creates a way of structure, safety, and predictability, which is essential for their growth.
The vacation season is a time of joy and togetherness, as we gather with our loved ones to rejoice. With older children, you could need to be more strategic about this. If you get constant complaints of your youngster being restless and distracting the category from his trainer, enrolling him in a sports staff could help channel a few of his energy. That means having common nap occasions, mealtimes, and bedtimes, in addition to occasions when your baby is free to have fun. Another good thought may be recording what time of the day the conduct happens.
If we use optimistic parenting techniques to satisfy their wants for power and a spotlight in constructive methods, any negative attention or power-seeking conduct will dwindle. Adler developed a set of kid steering practices based on respect and dignity, which have been thought of revolutionary throughout his time. Adler focused on the foundational idea that household was a democracy. He believed human cooperation and encouragement had been essential for development. If your child isn’t cooperating, try making the task a sport. Embrace playful strategies and video games to help your child internalize regulation abilities.
But disciplining children is usually a positive experience when dad and mom are outfitted with totally different strategies to use for various situations. Discipline does not essentially need to be a negative thing; Discipline truly means steering, not punishment. Children need to learn “the rules” of tips on how to act, the way to deal with others, how to share, tips on how to say “please” and “thank you,” and so forth. from adults through optimistic discipline interactions.
Giving your baby choices, similar to selecting their outfit for the day or selecting between two wholesome snacks, helps build confidence and decision-making expertise. Keep in thoughts, nevertheless, that kids can turn out to be overwhelmed with too many selections so relying on the scenario you could must restrict the choices offered. When redirecting conduct becomes habitual, you’ll begin to discover that your youngster begins to assume before acting, making decisions that are extra respectful and thoughtful of others. And as dad and mom, we get to benefit from the peace of thoughts that comes with knowing our little ones are developing essential life skills – like self-regulation, problem-solving, and empathy. When children feel overwhelmed or unable to specific themselves effectively, they could lash out or act impulsively.
Over time, children internalize the attitudes and expectations of their caregivers and study to self-regulate their habits. Parents also assist their children acquire these abilities by having them participate in routine activities (e.g., chores, taking care of siblings) and household rituals (e.g., going to church) (Weisner, 2002). Parents’ capability to foster a sense of belonging and self-worth in their youngsters is important to the youngsters’s early growth. Parents can promote the educational and acquisition of social abilities by establishing sturdy relationships with their children. Parents socialize their children to adopt culturally applicable values and behaviors that enable them to be socially competent and act as members of a social group. Children raised beneath positive parenting methods show increased resilience.
I’ve noticed how this evidence-based approach creates lasting behavioral adjustments by emphasizing connection over correction. One of the most developmentally supportive parenting expertise a father or mother can offer to their child or teen is validation. In easy words, validation means to acknowledge with out judgment the sentiments of one other as legitimate and real for them. This seems like giving nurturing attention to and not trivializing or punishing your child/teen when they categorical what in your view might look like extreme reactions. Validation seems like accepting your child or teen’s emotions as real for them somewhat than telling them they shouldn’t feel as they do.
In flip, this help may help your youngster develop sturdy social-emotional abilities and help them relate to others. When you acknowledge and validate your child’s feelings, you show them that every one of their emotions — positive and adverse — are OK and that you’ll support them through no matter they really feel. Positive parenting strategies are probably to de-emphasize criticism on lower grades and unwanted behaviors and as a substitute place extra give consideration to praising prime grades and good conduct.
This info is prepared for informational purposes only. XO Group Inc. and its associates do not advocate or endorse any particular exams, physicians, merchandise, procedures, opinions, or different data that might be mentioned herein. You should seek the advice of together with your healthcare supplier about your specific well being wants. You should always speak along with your doctor before you start, stop, or change any prescribed part of your care plan, exercise program or remedy. No one likes being spoken down to, least of all young children, who’re already at a drawback height-wise. So if you need to convey a message to your youngster, maybe when he’s upset or must be spoken to, you must kneel down and make eye contact, advises Dr. Jackson.
Overparenting or controlling tendencies, nevertheless, impede problem-solving skills and resilience. Warmth, assist, fairness, and authoritative practices create balanced environments that increase self-esteem, emotional growth, and long-term success. These children can also profit from a gentle parenting strategy. Because of their challenges, they could have a hard time managing big feelings, which may result in mood tantrums and outbursts.
Encourage them to come up with options to challenges they face. This empowers them to assume critically and build problem-solving skills. Be a optimistic function mannequin by demonstrating the behaviors, attitudes, and values you need them to adopt. With little youngsters, use a puppet to model constructive habits, or mediate fights. A third celebration can help cool things down and diffuse pressure. Pick a quiet time for a fast puppet show modeling constructive conduct.
Understanding the milestones for each age is essential because positive parenting methods vary based mostly on the child’s wants at certain phases. Structure and predictability help youngsters feel protected and secure. Daily routines, such as morning rituals the place they eat breakfast and have wind-down time in the evening, provide stability and assist cognitive and emotional development. By specializing in these foundations, parents can support their child’s emotional well-being whereas guiding them by way of the challenges of kid improvement. Finally, prioritize your mental health by setting sensible expectations and accepting that it’s okay not to have all the solutions.
Building shallowness in children is crucial for his or her long-term success and happiness. For more information on constructing shallowness in children, go to our article on building self-esteem in youngsters. A growth mindset is another important aspect of optimistic behavior and motivation. A progress mindset is the assumption that abilities and intelligence may be developed by way of effort and follow.
So in case your kid must be disciplined, there might be more practical methods to do it, according to Healthy Children. For instance, you would possibly set extra defined limits so he knows what’s anticipated of him. Or you would possibly mannequin more conducive conduct that you actually want him to adopt.
This method emphasizes optimistic reinforcement and the significance of open dialogue amongst relations. Parent-child therapy performs a pivotal role in bettering familial relationships and addressing behavioral challenges in kids. This article delves into numerous efficient techniques, evaluating their methodologies, advantages, and evidence-based practices. Parent conduct therapy might help with kids’ behavior as a end result of it teaches dad and mom abilities to respond effectively to their child’s habits and maintain issues calm at house. Most applications focus on utilizing reward to encourage good behavior and constant penalties when children misbehave. Attendees of BEST workshops learn the fundamentals of behavior management and how to apply these abilities consistently and successfully to increase their confidence in managing difficult behaviors.
If you want your baby to be respectful, sort, and affected person, it’s important to model these behaviors in your every day interactions. Routines assist youngsters develop duty, improve time administration skills, and cut back nervousness about what’s coming next. Even for an older child, sustaining consistent expectations round homework, screen time, and bedtime can provide a sense of stability and develop their ability to self-regulate.
Positive reinforcement is a powerful tool that enhances parent-child relationships and fosters child improvement in a number of methods. It creates a nurturing setting characterised by trust and open communication. When parents recognize and reward constructive behaviors, it helps construct youngsters’s self-esteem and confidence, motivating them to have interaction in additional constructive actions. A good advice for folks to be is to embrace healthy parenting practices for efficient child-rearing.
Parents may help by allowing kids to deal with age-appropriate duties, reinforcing their ability to perform independently. This balance permits kids to understand that guidelines exist for their safety and well-being, yet in addition they have the house to make choices and be taught from their actions. When it comes to getting the grasp of this household factor, setting boundaries is like including guardrails to a winding street – they’re important. Kids must know what’s anticipated, and we need to stick to our guns to keep issues operating smoothly. It’s about giving the identical vibes whether or not it’s Tuesday or Saturday, so nobody’s caught off guard.
Parents can bolster development by providing stimulating environments, participating in developmentally appropriate actions, and persistently offering emotional help. Routine pediatric check-ups help monitor progress and tackle any considerations. Emotional growth encompasses recognizing and expressing feelings, whereas social milestones concentrate on relationships with others. These areas typically progress in parallel and affect each other.
However, prior research on family meals have seldom used repeated measures of family meals and well being to handle the potential for reverse causality20. Make rewards initially simple to earn, and progressively increase the demand, then phase them out when the desired behavior becomes a habit. Managing challenging behaviors transforms tough moments into learning opportunities by way of optimistic steering strategies. Research indicates a 65% discount in disruptive behaviors when using these evidence-based approaches persistently. This may be accomplished by setting up a proper family intervention. You will lie out in writing the principles and limits of the household.
This means, for instance, that a toddler who measures 32 inches should be taking in a mean of about 1,300 calories a day, but the quantity varies with every child’s construct and exercise degree. While parenting has its rewards and joys, it may also be exhausting, irritating and difficult. Many parents want they might have a peaceable home with less battle and extra understanding.
Using age-appropriate language is another fundamental factor of effective communication with toddlers. Adjusting your vocabulary and communication fashion to match their developmental stage permits them to comprehend and reply appropriately. Simple and concise sentences, accompanied by gestures and facial expressions, can enhance their understanding and encourage active participation in conversations. Pro Tip From HIGH5 Evolve your strengths-based parenting as your baby grows! Regularly revisit your HIGH5 strengths evaluation results and contemplate how you can apply these strengths to address the altering needs of your baby at each developmental stage. For instance, if ‘Storyteller’ is certainly one of your top strengths, you might use participating narratives to debate advanced matters like puberty or peer strain with your older children.
Positive parenting techniques, similar to open communication, active listening, and respect for autonomy, assist teens really feel understood and valued. This approach encourages them to be extra open with their parents and fosters mutual respect, making it easier to guide them by way of the challenges of adolescence. By balancing an approach that’s each compassionate and firm, mother and father can nurture their children’s growth and help them build important life skills.
Attend school occasions, talk with their teachers, and show interest of their social life. You can offer steering and encouragement by staying concerned while demonstrating your commitment to their well-being and success. Make sure to enforce guidelines and penalties persistently, so your child knows what to anticipate and understands that boundaries are non-negotiable. This strategy helps your youngster understand the impression of their actions on others without feeling attacked, fostering empathy and selling more healthy communication.
Instead of issuing orders to them, try speaking about them instead, and provides them a alternative. Instead of leaping straight to discipline, begin by acknowledging what your youngster is feeling, whether it’s anger, disappointment, or guilt. Positive parenting may be incredibly powerful, but it’s not a shortcut or a cure-all. It’s a apply, and it works best when you might have support, grace for yourself, and the freedom to try once more if you inevitably lose your cool.
In authoritative parenting, the connection between parent and child is characterised by mutual respect and understanding. Parents are involved of their children’s lives, actively listening to their concerns, and providing love with out overindulgence. While they keep authority, in addition they encourage independence by allowing kids to make choices inside established boundaries. This steadiness fosters self-reliance and critical pondering in children.
By being a positive function mannequin, you possibly can encourage your teenager to try for private growth and responsibility. While video video games and social media could be enjoyable, it’s essential to set limits on display screen time to make sure your teen is also partaking in healthy actions and social interactions. Establish clear guidelines for expertise usage, and encourage your teenager to balance their screen time with hobbies, exercise, and face-to-face interactions. By monitoring display screen time, you’ll be able to promote a well-rounded lifestyle in your younger grownup.
Much like that youngster operating into the street; he’ll run if there is no menace of a spanking. And your child is prepared and emotionally able to hearken to and welcome your steerage. A 2013 research discovered that physical punishment does not help a baby to internalize the behavior you are attempting to teach. If you spank your baby for working into the street, your baby could not run into the road if you finish up round, as a result of he is afraid of that spanking. This fosters shallowness and self-confidence in your child’s ability to make his own selections. It’s no secret that your baby is extra confident if your youngster is aware of he’s loved!
Positive Parenting is now seen as the most effective approach to increase kids. Back in 2022, constructive self-discipline was first introduced as an effective way to manage children’s behavior. It is a method that focuses on educating good behavior using type and firm parenting strategies. There are many constructive discipline techniques that folks can use to improve their children’s behavior. Some of the simplest techniques embrace setting limits, being constant, and utilizing penalties that are logical and fair. Positive parenting is a mode of child-rearing that is based mostly on the concept that kids need to be raised with warmth, love, and positive reinforcement to have the ability to develop into wholesome, pleased adults.
Building a strong parent-child bond is crucial for the wholesome growth of your youngster and the overall well-being of your liked ones. By fostering a robust and secure attachment, you can create a basis of trust, love, and help that will benefit your child all through their life. Positive parenting is not about being permissive or overly lenient. It is about discovering a stability between offering structure and self-discipline, while also fostering a warm and supportive environment where children feel protected to explore, make errors, and learn from them.
Remember, optimistic parenting is a journey, not a vacation spot. Consider scheduling common “playtime” into your family’s day by day routine. This could be as simple as dedicating an hour each day to out of doors play, or setting apart a weekend morning for a household hike.
During this stage, toddlers should have the power to follow two- or three-step instructions, kind objects by shape and shade, imitate the actions of adults and playmates, and categorical a variety of emotions. Toddlers will experience significant considering, learning, social, and emotional changes that will assist them discover and make sense of their world. Skills similar to taking turns, enjoying make believe, and kicking a ball, are referred to as developmental milestones. During this stage, toddlers will show larger independence; begin to indicate defiant behavior; recognize themselves in photos or a mirror; and imitate the behavior of others, especially adults and older youngsters. We supply therapy classes, parenting workshops, and individualized support tailored to your family’s distinctive needs.
Parents were instructed that children should complete the puzzle alone, but they could provide any assistance essential. Puzzles various by age group in order that the puzzle slightly exceeded the child’s ability level. It was anticipated that positive and nurturing dad and mom would stay supportive toward the kid throughout the duty. Trained observers, who met 80% criterion, coded aspects of positive parenting from video recordings of the puzzle task using the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales (Melby et al., 1998). To ensure reliability, 25% of the observed interaction tasks had been rated by two randomly assigned impartial coders. The variety of coders various in any given wave but ranged from four to 8 over the years of data assortment.
This blog will discover sensible strategies and methods for enhancing parenting skills, specializing in communication, self-discipline, and emotional help. Vi discovered she wanted to cease assuming she knew the “why” behind her children’s reactions. Instead of saying, “I know you don’t want to go to bed, but you may have to! Building a powerful parent-child bond is important for positive parenting. When parents develop a deep connection with their youngster, it creates a nurturing foundation for their general improvement and well-being.
“Nor does it end in lasting positive outcomes in the long term.” Of course, there are going to be occasions when you’re going to roar at your kid, and that’s okay. But the point of constructive parenting is to try to restrict these outbursts until they’re absolutely necessary. Positive parenting does not mean that your youngster has no boundaries.
For many toddlers, refusing a meal is a method to assert control. Pressure to eat typically makes things worse, turning mealtime right into a battle as an alternative of a constructive experience. Bedtime battles are widespread as a result of toddlers don’t need to stop what they’re doing. A predictable routine helps, signaling that sleep is coming. Doing the same steps—bath, books, bed—every night makes transitions easier. A baby who picks between two outfits or decides whether to brush their tooth before or after a bath is extra prone to cooperate.