Character Development
It is more often than less the principle of practicing what you preach that brings about strong morals and values in children, especially for those in their early years. Every time you are unconditionally generous towards someone in need of help; every time you go out of your way and sacrifice for a charitable cause and every time you show tolerance, concern and sincerity in the way you communicate with other people you are not only providing a role model for your children to view but also making a deep impression on their own way of dealing with the world around them.

For the development of moral principles of the child, parents must organize their own priorities as role models. Placing more value on selfish material benefit than on ensuring equality and fairness creates a Darwinian sentiment in children that makes them a competitive and self-centered survivor with no concern for those around them. Similarly defining behavior that is cooperative and rises above any needy obligation with material wellbeing has equally strong effects on the child’s outlook on life.

The family, being one of the pillars of any social structure, plays a seminal role in strengthening the child’s social skills. In joint family systems, where parents and their children's families often live under a single roof, the definition and responsibilities of a parent or a caregiver are extended to grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, and even friends and neighbors. The joint family system is one which is strongly embedded in our culture and our way of living. It minimizes the inclination to be selfish and think of oneself as a ‘individual’ in the social web of life. It is one that is underpinned on cooperation, sharing, tolerance, compromises and mutual understanding of the people you spend your life with. The very bases of this system instill in the child the same sentiments of keeping high the responsibility he has to have towards the people around him.

Positive Disciplining
Parents have a very tricky role to play when it comes to disciplining their children. To boost their children’s confidence parents must allow them to take a few decisions on their own and simultaneously they must also be taught to confront the consequences of those decisions.

A child can get discouraged very easily. It is important that caregivers create a positive environment where the ‘don’t & do’s’ for children are minimized. Young children like to experiment with everything, thus parents should create a safe environment where the child is free to experiment.

Providing children with a variety of interesting activities will keep them happily occupied and out of trouble, thus minimizing the needs for disciplinary action.

Relationships
Parents and caregivers influence their young child’s growth and development much more than may seem apparent. To realize children’s true potential in the various aspects that forms them, it is an absolute obligation that parents provide nurturing and dependable relationships based on security, pleasant interaction, encouragement and affection. Not only do these relationships imbue in children the confidence and the ability to manage stress, insecurities and fear but also inspires social skills, emotional growth and emotional regulation.

Like adults, children need to be held, cuddled and encouraged to express their affection for others. Maintaining physical closeness is important, as children feel a particular connection with their parents through physical touch.

Your attitude toward emotions, especially negative ones like sadness or anger, can shape how your kids learn to handle their own feelings. We all have different approaches to emotional experiences, but some are more helpful in nurturing emotional development than others. It always helps to stay informed of your child’s emotional needs, and how to deal with them.

For many parents childcare has to be balanced between a lot of other activities and commitments. There is no doubt that for all children the first few years are vitally important to form a basis for good education, good health, emotional strength, morality, self discipline and social integration. There is also no doubt that all parents hold their children dearest amongst all relationships. But it doesn’t hurt to be reminded that parents have to prioritize and make an extra effort to be tolerant, sincerely affectionate and genuinely concerned in the way they bring up their children.