Parenting can be a challenge. Read the account of Adam and Eve and these four tips to make parenting easier:
Tip #1:
Parents can Provide a Home of Safety
We read in Genesis that God created the world with a beautiful garden in Eden (Gen 2:9). Similarly, parents can provide a safe environment in which their children's every physical and emotional needs are addressed.
Tip #2:
Parents can Provide Their Children with Choices and Consequences
God gave Adam and Eve the opportunity to make choices. One of those choices was whether to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That choice had certain consequences. If they didn’t eat the fruit, they would remain in their innocent, though non-progressing, state. If they did eat the fruit, Adam and Eve would be able to have children and experience joy (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 2:22-23).
God allowed Adam and Eve to make choices and set the stage for them to further their progression through exercising their own agency.
All children will make mistakes and have the opportunity to learn from them. Parents should help guide their children as they exercise their own independence.
Tip #3:
Parents can Secure Against the Power of Outside Influencers
After Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit, they had to leave the Garden of Eden. Similarly, eventually children must make their own way in the world, leaving their dependency on their parents behind as they grow and learn for themselves the difference between good and evil. Teaching your children the difference between right and wrong will help them as they wade through contrasting teachings from outside influencers.
Tip #4: Parents can Expect Conflict
Parents may think that their homes should always be peaceful and free of tension. The account of Adam and Eve demonstrates that parenting is not always tranquil, especially as children begin to choose for themselves. Remember that when resistance is present in the family, it does not necessarily mean the parents have failed, rather, it comes with the territory.