Effective Parenting is a Journey!

Life Style

March 2, 2018

[vc_row content_placement=”top” font_color=”#5c5c5c” css=”.vc_custom_1555533830949{margin-top: 0px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;border-bottom-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;padding-bottom: 0px !important;background-color: #ffffff !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Being the new employee with Nextenture, I was somewhat caught off guard when asked to write the next blog for the company. I decided to start with the Nextenture website and check out our services offerings: implementation, Help Desk Pro, Change Management, Online Training, Customizations, Labor Modeling, Appointment Bookings and Analytics. Once there, I quickly realized that all the services we offer I can relate to – as the mother to triplet boys! Implementations: This is something that I started to do right out of the gate. Even though the boys were all born on the same day – and pretty much at the same time – they had very different needs, so I was constantly having to implement new strategies in some way or another, whether it be feeding schedules, formula brands, sleeping habits, likes and dislikes. And like retail implementations, it requires both long term strategy and adjustments. Help Desk Pro: This term alone defines the role of a mother. Whether it be helping find the lost shoe, fixing the broken toy, helping with school projects or just answering the “why” and “how come” questions repeatedly on a daily and often hourly basis, you’re always the one who has the answer. Even if their dad is in the same room. Change Management: “The purpose of change management is to implement strategies for effecting change, controlling change and helping people to adapt to change.” Raising children to become, independent, successful, productive members of society starts with change management at a very young age. Guiding them and giving them the tools that they will use throughout their lives to be able to deal with and adapt to any situation that may arise out of the normal realm is a must. Our change management rule was “you will get out what you put in.” This basically applied to everything they became involved in, from school, sports, homework, work, friendships and relationships. Clearly, you can see a parallel with retail. Online Training: We live in the world where the majority of kids have access to being on-line in some sort of social applications texting, snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. As parents, it is our responsibility to train and teach our children the balance between on/offline. When my boys were younger, we implemented a rule that we called “no electronic Sunday.” They were not allowed to use any electronic devices on Sundays, as it was the one day of the week that was kept for being social with live humans. One exception to the rule was if the Patriots were playing. Maybe it’s not the most direct comparison to online training, but in a funny way, it’s offline training. Customizations: We would like to believe that as parents we can customize our children to be whatever it is we want or think they should be. However, in the end, I believe that everyone is born with a predisposition and will be whatever it is that they want to be! Having said that, it is not unattainable to customize your children with family traditions and memories that they can then customize for their own families. Labor Modeling: I’m not too sure that I have much to say about this other than I wish I had taken the time to implement some sort of labor practice with my boys. Sadly, my children do not model that labor quite yet! Usually, I’m the one doing laundry, dishes, vacuuming and yard work. I don’t think it’s too late though, so fortunately for me, labor modeling will be implemented in my home as soon as possible. Appointment Bookings: Again – this is just part of being a mom. When children are young, you are the one booking all their appointments: doctors, playdates, soccer practice, swim meets, tutoring – the list is endless. From what I can see, it really doesn’t end as they get older. It just transforms in appointment reminding, as well as seeing what they’re up to! Analytics: You would think that if data analytics is such a big deal in business than it should also work in parenting. Kids are constantly asking for, saying and doing various things. . We should be able to capture all of it, analyze it and arrive at explanations that help guide us into making decisions as parents. That sounds easy, but for analytics to work, you need data. Analyzing works well during the younger years, when kids are vocal about their emotions. When children become teenagers, and fall into the teenage non-communication hole, it makes it much more difficult to get any data to analyze. Nextenture’s motto is “Because Effective Retail is a Journey.” Equally, I have learned that “Effective Parenting is a Journey,” an amazing journey.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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