Parenting | How to be more socially engaged
It’s not always easy for parents, especially those parenting alone or with little expendable income, to establish or maintain a reasonable level of social engagement. Parent who are socially engaged generally have higher levels of self esteem. Maintaining your self esteem can help you to feel more comfortable in social situations and enable you to support this development in your children.
Here are ’10 ways to’ to be more socially engaged.
- Visit the play park regularly and talk to other parents.
- Make play dates with your friends and their children.
- Make play dates with friends of your children and their parents.
- Join a club, hobby group or walking group.
- Join a playgroup.
- Volunteer in your community or local school.
- Join professional groups: for example, One Family has social group outings all summer for lone parents and their children. Call 01 662 9212 or follow our Facebook page for details of the next outing.
- Engage in community activities and events: free events regularly take place in most communities.
- Spend time with family when possible.
- Use social media, wisely, to keep connected. As well as your own social media profiles, there are many online communities established for parents, and you might also like to connect with One Family on Facebook and Twitter.
This ’10 Ways to’ article is by One Family’s Director of Children & Parenting Services, Geraldine Kelly, as part of our weekly ’10 Ways to’ series of parenting tips. You can read the full series here.
Find out more about our parenting skills programmes and parent supports. For support and information on these or any related topics, call askonefamily on lo-call 1890 66 22 12 or on 01 662 9212.