Children need role models. They need to have positive relationships with other children, with adults, and most importantly, with themselves. Helping the child or children in your care develop these positive relationships is one of the best things that you can do as a parent or guardian.
Though helping children develop a positive relationship with themselves or others is a challenge for all parents, foster parents arguably have a bigger job on their hands.
Regardless of whether you want to help your biological children or foster children in your care, these steps are essential.
Know What You Can, and Cannot Accomplish
You cannot make friends for your child. You cannot make everyone play nice or be nice to your child. What you can do, however, is act as a role model and as a template. Teach your child how to be respectful, kind, and supportive by being respectful, kind, and supportive.
This is particularly important when you are fostering a child who has already seen or experienced some of the worst that life has to offer.
Steps to Helping a Child Develop a Positive Relationship
To help children develop a positive relationship with others you will need to get started on these five steps:
1.   Set a Solid Framework of Expectation
Creating a framework of what you expect, the rules, and the consequences of breaking those rules can be very helpful when it comes to raising children. It means that kids know what to expect, and where boundaries are. Don’t make these rules so restrictive that they cannot explore, learn, or grow, but do put them in place to give them a safe environment that they understand and can rely on.
2.   Give Plenty of Opportunities
Give the children in your care plenty of opportunities to join in. Always invite them, even if they say no. Planning projects is a great way to improve your relationship with the kids in your care, and also a great way to help them get out of their shells. When they do join in, give them an important role or job to make them immediately feel included and part of the team.
Being a long-term foster parent through thefca.co.uk is a great way to help children who have come from difficult backgrounds find stable ground and new opportunities. It is also how you can help these children who otherwise wouldn’t have a good role model develop positive relationships.
3.   Help Them Grow Their Independence
Every child is going to want to test their independence and try to do things on their own. Let them. You can give them a safety net and the comfort to use it whenever they need it. As they get older, expand this safety net so that they can get out there and feel confident being by themselves.
4.   Be Open with Communication
Open communication is key. It is how you can better understand each other and how you can teach the children in your care to communicate their needs, boundaries, and thoughts better with you and with everyone else in their lives.
5.   Don’t Do it Alone
Helping a child develop more positive relationships will sometimes mean dismantling their trauma. You cannot and do not have to do this on your own. Getting the right help can be instrumental to your child and can help pave the way towards a better, brighter future.
