WHAT PARENTS NEED TO KNOW
1. I find parents comparing their children with other children or even with siblings. This comparison dampens the self-confidence of a child which can transcend into the manifestation of other negative attitudes. Do not compare your children, rather celebrate their little achievements and motivate them to aspire to great inspirations.
2. Due to the cumbersome nature of training up a child, most parents send their children to boarding school as an escape route from the "stress". I am not negating the importance of boarding school, but my point is this, the boarding school isn't meant for every child. Therefore it's your responsibility to study your child and underscore what is suitable for your child. Don't try to escape from the responsibility, do the needful and pay closer attention to necessary detail.
3. Every child is gifted with unfathomable abilities which they exhibit every now and then. It could be your little girl mimicking an artiste, a dancer, or your child could be gifted with manual dexterity, cognitive ability, but you will not notice all of these if you don't observe closely. Most parents have quenched the ambidextrous ability of their children by compelling them to write with the right hand when they are gifted to write with both perfectly.
4. It is easy to join the bang waggon of using careless words on your children. Sometimes parents "jokingly" make some comments regarding their children. People are made by words and there are no jokes about this truth. If you have to say something to your child, let it be words that enrich, edify, motivate, inspire, and corrective. Also be aware that you are the first role model to your children and whatever they see you do will be first value to them...and guess what? They will multiply the effect.
5. As parents, most of us unintentionally park in the same parking lot where our own parents parked in. We want to do parenting the same way our parents did...forgetting so soon how it affected us. The exasperation, the fear of failing, the anxiety stemming from high expectations, the comparison, the use of words, the restrictions. If you adopt the strategy your parents wished they hadn't used, your children wouldn't express the best of themselves. Love, care, expect them to make mistakes, be ready to correct in love and expect them to open up to you.
In all of these, parenting comes with various components that require your attention, but you wouldn't be able to succeed by relying on your abilities and strength...people that approached things that way will share how worn out and exhausted they became after few trials.
Subscribe to the teaching and leading of the Holy Spirit, and you will be amazed on how well you and your beautiful family will turn out.
Beyond our dreams...Life is beautiful.
Comments