Have faith in your parenting skills.

One reason moms and dads parent inconsistently is that they feel uncertain about their parenting skills.  If you are a parent that feels guilty that you are being too harsh, or helpless at being able to set limits and follow through, then you need to get some confidence in your parenting skills!  You can do this through, classes, books and online resources as well.  While none of us are perfect parents, there is a term used in parenting called, "good enough". Good enough parents usually convey through role modeling good enough parenting skills to their offspring, (YOU!) and you can be rest assured that you are parenting good enough as well.  

There are two voices that can block your achievement in this area.  The first is the voice in your own head.  It is usually you being too harsh on yourself.  If you follow this voice more deeply, you may see the connection between things you heard as a child and the details of this voice of criticism in your head.   Explore this fully and work on being gentler and kinder to yourself, giving yourself the kind words you deserved then.  This will lessen the power of those negative thoughts to disturb your confidence in your parenting skills now. The other more obvious voice of criticism is our well-meaning friends and relatives.

It's OK to trust a friend's advice if we respect MOST aspects of how that friend is parenting and can use their wisdom to make our decisions.  It will not work however if something in us feels there may be something wrong with those parenting tools for us and our children.  Becoming "good enough" is a sense inside of you that you are doing your best and giving yourself enough time and energy to focus on those things that give you that confidence to have faith in your parenting skills.