Abstract

The main purpose of the study was to investigate parenting skills needed by young parents in Enugu State for proper child upbringing. Specifically, it investigated feeding, health care, emotional, physical exercise, sleep/rest and safety skills needed by young parents in Enugu State. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The population comprised 625 young and older parents with 245 young and older parents as the sample size. The questionnaire was used for data collection and it was face validated by three experts. Six research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. Mean and Standard Deviation were used in answering the research questions while t-test was used in testing the stated hypotheses. The findings include among others feeding skills needed by young parents: sitting comfortably while breastfeeding the baby, feeding the baby on both breasts, one at a time, winding the baby at the end of feeding, giving exclusive breastfeeding for six months and boiling all the water used for preparation of baby’s food, providing adequate diet for the baby; washing hands before preparing baby’s food, sterilizing baby’s feeding unit after each meal, encouraging children to sit comfortably before eating, monitoring children while eating. Toilet training skills: changing diapers/nappies as and out when due, detecting when the child is wet and uncomfortable, supervising the children when they are using potty/toilet, teaching older children how to clean their buttocks with toilet papers/water and making toilet areas easily accessible for children. Emotional skills: comforting or cuddling a child, detecting when the child is wet an uncomfortable, providing the child with toys, helping the child to sleep through petting, socializing the child properly and responding promptly to a child’s desire to ease himself/herself. Physical exercise: choosing, or providing play activities suitable for the child, selecting the play materials suitable for children, teaching children how to use the play materials and providing safe play ground for children. Sleep/rest skills: rocking to make the child sleep off, being familiar with the baby’s signs of sleep and ensuring that the baby sleeps under mosquito net. Safety skills: keeping floors safe from dangerous items, keeping drugs, cleaning agents and tools out of reach of the children, monitoring children in their everyday activity and keeping children’s surroundings clean. The researcher generally recommended that young and older parents in Nigeria should imbibe the various parenting skills in other to bring up well balanced personalities in the society.