Baskadia

In recent times parenting has taken a broader shape than it was perceived to be from a distance. This could be associated with the fact that children born in this era are highly smart and intelligent. The method parents from generations past had exercised or practiced while bringing up kids seems to have become insufficient, due to the challenging activities that kids are engaged with from the point of birth through teenage hood, making child care taxing.

Kids look out for more than just the basic needs they require to grow, learn, and become successful. There are times when they become so annoying that one thinks they are being so ungrateful or out rightly arrogant, at these times, they seek attention, companionship, and freedom of expression. Aside from working around the clock to earn enough for their upkeep, a little of a parent’s time is what every kid looks forward to. Is that too much to add?

Well, the definition given to the time allocated to a kid is highly misunderstood by a lot, as they think it solidly revolves around helping them out with school work, dishing instructions here and there, and taking them out on a hang out once in a hundred weekends. Work stress, mood, events, family, and so on is on one’s mind, yes! But getting to find out how your kid’s day went, his or her challenges, fears, assumptions, misconceptions, ideas, interests, and anticipations could go a long way.

Would one rather have one’s kid gaining attention from the other set of peer groups who have gone wild and have erupted into miscreants or some set of adults who take advantage of such child’s longing as an avenue to abuse them? Before a kid takes a different turn that seems out of place, a parent or a guardian has complained too busy, tired, or going through stuff on the phone, including paying half or no attention to the calls of “daddy” and “mummy”, having a caregiver play the role of a parent at a time when he or she had something to say, complain of or was in a desperate need of advice, consolation, and encouragement. You thought it was nothing? Well, it was something.

Kids go through stressful days in school, places of worship, or other places where they could be in every normal day. After all these, they require a lot of rest to meet up with multiple rules and chores to be kept and done around the home. A chance to speak for themselves should be given to them, you can’t assume they want things this way or the other way. Having them make some decisions about what they want should be allowed, at points where they make decisions that are not accepted in society or are not morally acceptable, a reasonable explanation as to why they won’t have things their way this time should be patiently given.

Relationships between spouses and people outside the family should be worthy of emulation. Domestic violence, howling of insults, fights, taking in hard drugs, sexual activities and so on should not be witnessed by kids, remember, children learn faster from what they see rather than what they hear. Finally, the act of comparing a kid to another kid thought to be better is dangerous, it doesn’t make a kid any better aside from destroying his or her self-esteem. Each child is unique, when he or she can’t do what others do, find out something that interests them best.

PL Onuorah

PL~Writes