Every parent wants to understand how the child's psyche is formed, to reveal the causal relationship between different manifestations of his behavior and on the basis of this understanding to correctly build his behavior, to raise the child correctly.

A baby was born, and with his appearance, parents begin a very special, new life.

Raising a child in the first year of life is a joyful and enjoyable activity. Every day parents notice something new in the behavior of their baby, the bond between the child and the mother grows stronger day by day, a great miracle is created - mother's love and the love of the baby for his parents. Yes, love does not exist by itself, it is created, formed. Love can and should be learned, because only someone who knows how to love people can teach his child love.

So, how to raise your child in the first year of life? How to create, to cultivate parental love in yourself? How to avoid typical parenting mistakes?

You will get answers to all these and many other questions in this chapter. You will learn what psychological changes occur in the family when spouses become parents, what is difficult and joyful about this period, what are the main psychological patterns of development of children in the first year of life and how parents can contribute to the process of growth and development of the baby.

Like the rest of the book, this chapter examines the mental development of the child in the context of his active activity and in constant interaction with an adult.

Psychology for parents is the psychology of family interaction, the psychology of relationships, which is why this chapter pays so much attention to everything that parents can do when building their contact with the youngest children, and what should not be done.

The most difficult, problematic questions (and answers) are concentrated in the "Psychological Counseling" section. Counseling psychologists will analyze your parental positions together with you, help a woman realize what kind of mother she is, give the main directions for purposeful monitoring of the development of the baby and draw up an approximate program of basic actions to form a deep psychological contact between the child and his parents.

Changes in family relationships

The appearance of a new person in the family is a joyful and anxious event. How will the relationship in the family change now? Who is this baby, what and how should you do with him? What will be the circle of the first parental concerns?

Knowledge of some psychological patterns that govern family relations associated with the birth of a child will help parents find answers to these and many other questions. So, let's start in order.

The birth of a child, especially the first child, is one of the most significant events in the life of a family, but along with joy come hundreds of new small and big problems come to young parents. This event inevitably leads to a sharp change in the lifestyle of the family, the interests and habits formed in both spouses, to the need to master difficult and mysterious social roles - the roles of father and mother.

No matter how natural the parental role is, no matter how much space is given to it in world literature, in rituals, songs and fairy tales, it is perhaps the most complex and ambiguously given. Its complexity is determined by a number of circumstances. First of all, it is due to the fact that young parents are under constant, and quite strong, pressure. There are many very contradictory opinions about how to take care of a child, what and how to say to him, when to feed him and when to play with him. Moreover, all these opinions are most often expressed by fairly authoritative sources - the husband's parents, the wife's parents, special books and brochures. And as a result, choosing their own style of behavior in relation to the child, spouses often find themselves in a situation of uncertainty, which provides ample opportunities for experiencing feelings of guilt, fear, self-doubt, etc. These feelings are also strengthened by the fact that everyone around is only talking about the need to be good parents, that you should not spoil the child in any way, etc.

The birth of a child does not always happen when and in the way the spouses want it, which can also serve as a basis for serious problems in mastering the parental role. The performance of parental duties in such a situation is associated with various negative feelings and experiences, which are not so easy to hide and overcome, especially at first. Such experiences are aggravated by the fact that the acceptance of this role occurs once and for all. If it is possible to divorce a husband and wife, then the refusal of parental duties is a grave crime of a person, both before himself and before society.