Brain-Based Parenting
Basic brain maintenance for our children, and for ourselves, means making a specific
effort, every day, to help our children's brains work normally. Dr. Ingraham urges
parents to teach their children every day, by example as well as by communication,
so that they develop positive and healthy habits and lifestyles, now and for the
future. Children learn best by example. Following are ten things you can do every
day for yourself and your child:
Bed on time: Sleep is brain restoration time. The brain's systems do not function very well
without sleep.
Normal nutrition: The brain requires normal nutrition to develop normally and replenish the brain's
chemicals.
Regular exercise: Endorphins are the brain's built-in stabilizers. Exercise and physical work
stabilize the brain's systems, especially the emotion response and mood regulation
systems.
Regular outdoor time: Being outdoors is therapeutic. We humans were not meant to be indoors all the
time.
Regular chores and responsibility: Teach your child how to work. Work keeps a child connected to the reality of
life. Teaching a child by example how to work helps the brain develop normally.
The opportunity to learn to work is crucial. Children who never work never mature.
Tie all privileges to responsibilities: This keeps the child connected to the reality of life, and what life requires
for success.
No exposure to violence, in any form: Violence in the family, violence in the environment, violence in TV, videos,
video games and movies. Repeated and continual exposure to violence, whether in
person or in the media, reprograms the child's primitive brain systems. We want
to maintain the normal ecology of our children's brains.
No exposure to greed, extravagance, explicit sex: These are major problems with the media and our value systems, both of which
have disconnected our children from reality.
Simplify your life and your family's life: Make your family's life more personal and less driven.
Get in tune with your real values and priorities: Get off the rollercoaster of materialism.
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