8 Easy Ways to Be a Better Parent

The upcoming change of seasons from late summer to fall is when I get reflective. It's back-to-school time, which means my family is gearing up for lots of new learning. I've been the parent of eight for 27 years now. (And I'm also the super-proud grandparent of an 18-month-old grandson!) When school bells are about to ring, I take stock in my parenting journey, past and present, and size up what I feel great about and what areas I'd like to improve.

Parenting may be the toughest job we'll ever love, but what I genuinely do love most is knowing that I'm not perfect and have endless opportunities to up my parenting game and tweak the areas I want to get better at. You don’t need to make significant changes when you want to make improvements in how you parent. Check out these ten easy tips that will help you strengthen your parenting role.

1. Give yourself a parenting review

One of my favorite rituals in the workforce is my annual job performance review. (No, I'm not kidding!) This used to cause me unreal anxiety, but once I shifted my mindset and recognized this yearly review as constructive feedback that I could use to improve my work role, I finally relaxed and looked forward to it.

Taking self-inventory can be useful for figuring out what's working and what needs improvement.

As parents, it's unlikely that our children will offer us helpful feedback on how we can improve our parenting skills. Taking self-inventory can be useful for figuring out what's working and what needs improvement. Here are some questions you can ask yourself about how you perceive yourself as a parent.

• What makes me unique and excellent as a parent?
• What can I start doing today that will make a difference in my child's life?
• What is my favorite part of being a parent?
• What are my parenting shortcomings, and how can I improve?

Start by focusing on what makes you shine as a person and let that be the foundation for polishing up your parenting game in the weeks to come.

2. Tune-up areas that need improvement

We schedule service tune-ups on our cars and appliances. We take our kids and ourselves to our health care providers for regular wellness visits to make sure we're healthy. So why not give your parenting skills an annual tune-up to make sure all areas function as they should?

What can you do to make your family's life (and your own!) more harmonious? Can you make adjustments to your kids' homework routines? Spend less time texting friends and co-workers?...

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