Affirming words from moms and dads are like light switches, speak a word of affirmation at the right moment in a child’s life is like lighting up a whole roomful of possibilities.(Garry Smalley) You may want your children to sit up straighter, study harder or show greater self discipline. Those are just behaviors to be […]
Affirming words from moms and dads are like light switches, speak a word of affirmation at the right moment in a child’s life is like lighting up a whole roomful of possibilities.(Garry Smalley)
You may want your children to sit up straighter, study harder or show greater self discipline. Those are just behaviors to be developed over time. We do everything in our power to raise our children to be good people and to have a happy life. We try to shape them in our image or in the image of another person. Forgetting that children are not formless clay to be molded. Though they need our counsel and guidance because they are immature and inexperienced, comfort and help in learning to manage how they feel, encouragement in exploring their interest and reaching out to the world, yet they are their own people.
Effective parenting is a fundamental key to raising well behaved, emotionally healthy ,God fearing /conscious, very successful children with the sense of civic responsibility . Effective parenting also helps protect children from developing anxiety, depression, eating disorder, antisocial behaviour, alcohol and drug abuse. Achieving these task are difficult for parents but not completely impossible.(www.hishamatalib.com)
WHAT IS PARENTING?
Parenting is the process of promoting, supporting the social, emotional, physical intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood.
WHAT IS EFFECTIVE PARENTING?
Effective parenting is learning to parent the child you have and not the child you wish you had, it is the ability to interact and engage with children in a way that they learn and grow into.(www.newtimes .co.rw)
HOW DOES EFFECTIVE PARENTING RAISE EMOTIONALLY HEALTHY CHILDREN?
1. Respect your children: Give your children the same courtesies you would any one else, be polite, respect their opinion, be kind to them. This is because children treat others the way their parents treat them.
2. Avoid harsh discipline: Avoid hitting your children, according to Steinberg “children who are always spanked are more likely to be bullies and aggressive”
3. Love your children for whom they are and try not to compare them with any one else
4. Help them to be emotionally intelligent (Empathy &Compassion)
5. Initiate repairs: Initiating repairs means making amends with your children when your relationship becomes strained by tension or outright conflict.
6. Be a part of your children’s life: This actually takes time and achieving it is also a bit difficult because it requires a lot of sacrifices on the part of the parents. It requires sacrificing what you want to do for what your child needs to do. It means rethinking and rearranging your priorities.
7. What you do matters: Whether it is your habit , character or the way you treat people. Your children learn from what you do more than what you say.
As I conclude “ Behind every child who believes in himself is a parent who believes first” (Mathew Jacobson)
