One of the greatest wishes of a father is that his son grows up healthy, happy and successful in all facets of his life . But raising a child is not always easy, and it can happen that many parents, in an attempt to give their children everything, abuse their overprotection and end up spoiling their children.

A happy child is not one who has a house full of toys and is spoiled by everything, because excessive gifts can cause a child to grow up spoiled. When you want so much In this sense, the behavior of parents and their way of bringing up their children will affect their future personality and their well-being and happiness throughout their lives.

How to raise a happy child

Being a good father is not about giving him everything a son has, even his whims, nor is it about letting him be carried away by his demands and manipulation. Rather, a good father offers his descendants an education that helps them to become emotionally strong people for the future and prepared for the good and bad times that life will bring.

If you are a parent and want to know what you can do to help your child grow up happy, the following lines contain 10 tips to help your child grow up emotionally healthy.

1. Teach him to tolerate frustration

Not everything in life is rosy. There are good moments and bad moments that we have to live through . To grow as a person we must be able not only to enjoy the good moments that life presents us with, but we must also know how to deal with those situations that are not so pleasant.

Frustration tolerance is one of those skills that allow us to cope with life and that are essential to solve problems and take advantage of bad times to grow as human beings. To develop frustration tolerance is to develop resilience and the ability to overcome problems. People with low frustration tolerance are vulnerable to emotional pain, are impulsive, and have difficulty adapting to changing environments. Therefore, it is important to educate in values such as effort, being consistent and setting an example, and setting limits for your children, among other behaviors that you can find in our article “How to teach your children to tolerate frustration, in 6 steps”.

2. Recognize your child’s perspective and empathize with him or her

Little ones also feel emotions . In fact, Paul C. Holinger, professor of psychiatry at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago, identified nine “signs” that children use to communicate their feelings. Parents can compare their children’s feelings with those of adults, and not only that their mental development is in the early stages.

The author argues that when a child hits a sibling or throws toys, it means he is distressed and that is his way of expressing himself. Although his reaction may seem disproportionate, recognizing the signals our child sends us greatly helps us to treat him appropriately. Empathizing with your child is key to building trust and being a good parent.

3. Communicate and listen to your child

While acknowledging your child’s emotions and empathizing with him is positive for his happiness, so is communicating and listening to what he has to say . Children need to feel important and loved, so it’s good to listen to what they have and communicate appropriately in order to express confidence and strengthen the bond of affection.

4. Don’t give in to tantrums

It may seem that giving in to tantrums is the best option for our child to feel good, but this is a way of reinforcing negative behaviors . If we give in to the tantrums, we are giving him the impression that he can get anything he wants if he throws tantrums or cries. Not giving everything up can be a good alternative for our child to start valuing things.

5. Spend time with your child

Children should notice that parents feel love for them, because the parental figure is necessary for the healthy development of a child. Spending time with children is enriching for both parties, which increases trust between them. Read stories to your child, play with him, teach him new things, take him on a trip and have fun with him .

6. Set limits

Setting limits may seem wrong, but it takes some discipline for children to learn that life has limits and they can’t do what they want at the time they want, so they are aware of what they should do and how far they can go. It is not good to be an overly permissive parent, because children need to have a pattern to guide their behaviour .

7. Praises his achievements

For a child to be happy he must have a high level of self-esteem and self-confidence, which will allow him to cope with life’s less pleasant moments . People tend to highlight the bad moments of our children, but we should also praise those behaviours that are positive, with the intention of giving them feedback and as a way of rewarding what they do well.