6 stages of parenthood every parent must know about

Parenting is a journey and a lifetime duty. It is the job of parents to look after the development of their children that occur differently at each stage. Nurturing the child and bringing the best out of them and teaching them discipline. But as your children grow up, you grow up with them.

You learn new things about parenting and what works for your child and what won’t. You live a life where you have to focus on parenting and living a life of your own. There are certain stages that a parent goes through, in the journey of parenting.

There are six parental stages:

This is the first stage when you start to understand your roles, responsibilities and try to shape yourself accordingly before your child is born. This preparation stage doesn’t mean buying toys, clothes and necessary things for your child but it means to be mentally building yourself ready for how your life is going to change and the compromises you have to make according to it. Distribution of work and deciding roles of each parent will play a role in nurturing their child. These preparation stages help you to continue your old lifestyle according to new changes.

In this stage, you try to form and maintain a bond with your child and learn how to balance your life and child. This stage is a very abrupt stage where half of your identity changes as you become a parent of a child. Parents get stuck on how to manage between the needs of their child and between their social, work and extended family. In this stage attachment is the main thing that all parents get with their child and this attachment makes them realize the needs of their children according to their mood.

This is the stage when the child is ready to express their thoughts and ideas. When your child tries to meddle in your chats and talk while they are being spoken to, you should know that they have entered the authority stage. This stage is a crucial stage in which a lot of new parenting techniques are to be learned and to understand your child’s cognitive development and what all needs are leading them to assert. This stage lasts till 5 years of age.

In this stage, the child enters the whole new world entering kindergarten the first step towards their schooling life. When the child enters this whole new phase of their life and as they interact with different people that includes their new friends, teachers they develop interests in many different things like music, art, dance and sports. These different interests can be similar or dissimilar to your interests. The lack of similarity can lead to separation and connection between you and your kids. During this stage moral values and beliefs are also decided and what you want to pass on to your child. This stage lasts till the beginning of the child's teenage years.

This stage is from the time puberty till the child enters high-school and college years of their life and starts to become independent with passing time. During this stage, your role in your child’s life is questioned. The child notices everything in the world and raises questions about why these things are occurring. This stage of parenting lasts till the child leaves their home. But you have to remember that you still play an important role in their development. Therefore, you should be there for them.

In this stage, a lot of re-adjustments are made by the parents because the child grows up and ventures on their own. You will now learn to live a life where you have to let go of your child and let them do their own thing and live a life for themselves. The bond between you and your child changes and they try to understand the things and the adulting you have to do.