Parent child relationships
Name calling-
It is easy as a parent to get in the habit of calling your children names. Often, these names are used as terms of endearment, but can still be damaging. Calling a child a little brat, or a booger, or a stink can subconsciously convince them that they are those things. This can hurt their overall self-image and self-esteem. As a parent it is important to only use terms of endearment that can't be misconstrued by the child, such as sweetheart, darling, love, etc. Or, simply use their name.
There are many families these days with parents who are divorced, or who never married. Often this leads to custody agreements where the child spends the majority of its time with one parent rather than the other. In some cases, a single parent, typically the mother will get full custody. The possible situations are endless. So, what do you do if you have been raising your child by yourself without the support or aid of, or interaction of the child's father, and suddenly they want to be part of their life? Do you let them? Do you tell them no? What is the best options? 
Having a parent that expects a lot from you can be a wonderful thing. It can make you try harder, reach further, and work yourself to the bone to meet your goals. Being the kind of parent that expects a lot from your kids can also be a good thing. However, when that gets taken too far, and the parent is impossible to please, it can have adversely negative effects on the kids. So, whether you are the parent who can't be pleased, or have a parent that can't be pleased consider the following:
When it comes to the relationships in our lives, one of the hardest problems to deal with is that of a neighbor or good friend that we enjoy spending time with having a child that you just can't stand. Because parents and children come as a package, it is difficult to have a friend with a child that is a terror. You can't just tell them that they are invited but they should get a sitter. So, what can you do if your friend's child is a terror? Consider the following:
Is it right for parents to have favorites? Parents know that they are not supposed to, but sometimes as a parent it can be hard not to, especially if one or more of your children are more difficult to take care of than others. Kids all come with their own unique personalities, and sometimes those personalities do not mesh well with parenting styles. However, most parents know that playing favorites is not good for children's self esteem, or for effective parenting. So what can you do when you genuinely feel like you prefer one of your children to the others?
Many parents are so desperate to have a child, and have to wait for so long for the adoption process, that they do not even think about the other problems there might be when it comes to adoption. One of the problems that are often not discussed are those relating to what happens if they get the child, and struggle to bond with it. What if you just don't love your adopted child?
These days families are always a bit confusing, and complicated. There are mixed families, adoptions, single-parents, foster families, and more. The variables are a big part of relationships being what they are. So, how do your relationships change if an adopted child, or an abandoned child discovers their true parentage? Discovering parentage can be a difficult experience, especially for the child and often for the parents.
There are many instances of kids growing up without a father. Sometimes it is due to divorce. Sometimes it is a result of death. Sometimes it is a result of neither, the father is just gone all of the time, or does not act like a father. Having an absentee father can be extremely difficult on a child. They may blame themselves for their father being gone, or worry that they have some share in the responsibility of it. The following is a look at how to handle having an absentee father:
Children generally have a natural knack for making friends and being outgoing. However, some children develop shyness, or a lack of confidence at a young age. That natural shyness can lead to a very unhappy teen and a young adult who has a hard time making or keeping friends or getting a job. You can help your child make friends and get involved socially early by helping them counteract their shy tendencies before they become a habit. Here are some suggestions to get you started:
Question: My kids are getting in the way of my relationship with my spouse. We are always stressed out because of all the stuff we have to do with the kids. At night, after we fight with the kids to go to bed, we don't want to be around each other, we just want alone time. I love my kids, but I think they are ruining my marital relationship. What do I do?
Question: My sister in law is my best friend, and we spend a lot of time together. However, we both have a child that is the same age, and gender. It can be a problem. She is constantly telling me how much smarter, athletic, and funny her kid is. It is always a comparison. Her child was potty trained before mine, and I had to hear about it every day. I really like her, but I am sick of the competition between us when it comes to our kids. I try to just smile and say, "Yes your child is great." But it never stops. What do I do?
If children have a low view of themselves or they feel that they are not a good person, there can be a variety of reasons behind that. As parents, we often feel helpless because we think there is nothing that we can do to stop our child from feeling that way. However, there are plenty of different things that you can do to stop your child from feeling like a bad person. The worst thing that you as a parent could do in this situation is to sit back and do nothing. Perhaps the most important thing that you can do to help your child feel better about them is to talk to your child, regardless of if they are listening or not and never give up on them.
Every person is capable of making a mistake, but when making a mistake or hurting a relationship within a family can be not only devastating, but hard to repair. To redeem yourself or for someone to redeem themselves, is a very important step that is often over looked or shrugged off. Making things right is the key to keeping a healthy relationship between you and your family member, but with the entire family. When a relationship has been damaged, a lot of times, families will become split with whom to support and agree with. Making the waters calm between the families is the key to keeping a family together.
As a parent, one of the main jobs that you have is making sure that your children are raised properly, according to your standards. You are also trying to raise your children to be all that they can be by giving them the tools that they need to become productive members of society, you want your child to add to the world rather than taking from it. However, sometimes no matter how hard we try to do what is right we end up doing something that can undermine everything that we have accomplished with our children.
Communication, effective and open, is an important part of strong, healthy families. It is an essential tool for developing and maintaining strong marital, parental and sibling relationships within the family. 
If you have more than one child you have already dealt with some form of sibling rivalry or just general fighting among siblings. While some fighting between siblings is normal, that does not mean that all fighting between your children is normal nor is it healthy for your children. Every parents dream is to have their children get along and have strong family bonds with each other, but sometimes as parents you are at a loss of how to make this happen. Sometimes between a few siblings getting along and forming a bond just seems to be out of their reach.
One thing that every family comes to realize is that spending time together as a family is important, but what many people don't think about is that everybody in the family needs their own space because they enjoy doing some things by themselves. Spending time alone is not going to hurt your family unit; it is actually going to increase the bond between family members, especially mom and dad. The hard part is trying to get alone time into your schedules because family time is just as important. The best thing that you can do to handle this is to set aside time in the family schedule for everybody to have his or her own activities. If you are a newly married couple without kids, you can dedicate every other Friday as girls or guys night out. 
Family dynamics change with the entrance of a teenager. The ability to communicate effectively with an adolescent can by trying and frustrating even on your best days. You can't force her to be well behaved or make good decisions, but you can stay involved in her life at a different level and still have an expectation as a family unit for your teenager. 
Domestic violence in relationships is a very serious problem, and one that is often difficult to not just identify, but also to stop. Many of the victims believe they deserve the abuse, and are unwilling to "betray" their abusers or turn them in. Domestic abuse often goes hand in hand with emotional abuse. 
Most parents have, at one time or another, become frustrated with a child who is less than appreciative of everything that we parents do for them. If you have young kids, you can forget about being genuinely appreciated for all that you do simply because children have no way of knowing just how impossible their lives would be without the caring hand of parents. While you may not get the thanks that you deserve while your kids are young, there are important lessons that you can teach them throughout their lives so that, hopefully, as they enter adulthood, they can start to realize how much you sacrificed for them and begin to show their genuine gratitude for you. Here are 3 different strategies for fostering gratitude:
Kids are a wonderful blessing and parents are happy to welcome them into the world and to take care of them. They raise them and nurture them to grow up and be successful and respectful. But what about kids that never really want to grow up and move out? Here are some tips for managing kids who won't move out and how you can get them to contribute more or to make that final move.
