Why is including your partner in parenting so important for you and your baby?

Including your partner, while parenting is exceptionally crucial, not just for your baby but also for you. Raising children as a team may be hard but is truly a game-changer when it comes to your child's upbringing—like in any team, raising children requires strong communication, agreement on a shared approach to parenting, decision making, and supporting each other through thick and thin.

Shared parenting involves agreeing on things like your child's bedtime, nutrition, or even discipline. If you are a couple, the job of managing the house befalls both of you, which may include doing chores, paying the bills, handling all the paperwork, earning an income, and so on. All these responsibilities translate into taking care of each other and your children, ensuring everyone has the time to do things they enjoy.

Having both parents present that nurtures a child physically and emotionally enhances the social development of a child. The relationship lays the building blocks of the child's personality, life choices, and even overall behavior. It also affects the strength of their social, physical, and mental health.

Children tend to look towards their fathers to lay down the rules and enforce them. They often also look to their fathers to provide them with a sense of security, both physical and emotional. Children often struggle to make their fathers proud, and if your partner is involved in the child's upbringing, it promotes the child's inner growth and strength. Studies prove that it affects a child's cognitive and social development when fathers are affectionate and supportive. Moreover, it instills an overall sense of wellbeing and self-confidence.

Father influences who we are inside and how we develop our relationships as we move along in our lives. The way a father treats his child will influence what they look for in their other relationships like friends, lovers, and spouses. All these relationships are determined by the relationship the child shares with his/her father.

Including your partner in the upbringing of your child is just as important for you as it is for your baby. Having a child puts a considerable physical and emotional strain on you as a mother. Pregnancy is actually the easy part. The challenging part begins from the labor pains and moves on till the child is old enough to sustain itself. Thus, dividing the work is extremely important in order for you to feel content and happy. If your partner is not there to help you, it may get tough for you to be the perfect mother you wish to become, as just like any other human being, mothers too need a break.

Unlike what was conventionally believed, parenthood is a task for two. Mothers are not solely responsible for the upbringing of a child; he/she needs two people to complete a family.

Author's Bio:

Dr. Sharon Fried Buchalter Ph.D., is a distinguished clinical psychologist, life coach, and public speaker who has worked as a Marriage and Family Therapist and clinical social worker. She received the highest accreditation as a board-certified diplomate-fellow in advanced child and adolescent psychology. She has spent her lifetime educating, enlightening and empowering parents and children of all ages.

She has developed revolutionary tools to help couples, parents, and families achieve happiness and success. Her first book Children Are People Too, provides eight essential steps designed to strengthen families and empower parents to be their own child's life coach and mentor. Her second book New Parents Are People Too, provides relationship advice for couples entering parenthood for the first time.

She is also the founder and owner of Products On The Go and Little Toes.