Child’s Upbringing: Creating the future human
Parenting is as the name suggests shouldering the responsibility of a parent to a child or children. It is a very big and equally important responsibility. You are creating the future human of this era. You are constantly being observed and so you need to be watchful of your moves in front of the children.
A baby as it grows it tends to learn in the beginning only and only through observations. The doctor’s advice is that you need to keep talking with the baby constantly rather than sitting quietly. This enables the child’s sensory organs to develop and note down certain behavior which is exactly followed by the young one. So we say that he behaves exactly like his Daddy/ Mother.
Being a good parent needs to have certain attributes. You need to be a patient listener, good in decision making, understanding, and adaptive to the hues and cries of the child on certain occasions. You may have to repeat the same word 10 times but yet we must say it the same way as we told it for the first time. As our child is trying to observe our lip movement as we say the word and also notes the voice modulation that we change as per the word chosen. This is how it tries to imitate you.
You need to set an example if you’re in front of the child. You cannot behave getting angry and irritated over a certain issue that might have occurred at the home front. How much ever we are frustrated at our workplace you cannot depict that restlessness in front of the child as it also tends to behave the same way when it is irritated over something. The child should feel secure and supported by the parents. If this is not seen then the child tries to seek support and follow what his friends do. After the baby grows big it is you who are the world to him. And they are your world too.
But as time passes and as we get more and more engrossed in our daily routine, we somehow tend to neglect them. We understand that we cannot devote the much required time as we used to do once upon a time. As a result, the child feels lonely and it then tends to go into its shell. Since you are helpless, you tend to fulfill this vacuum created in the child’s life by giving them gifts and spending money on their iPad and video games. Slowly the child understands that as my parents cannot devote the time they are capable of replacing the time lost with anything I want. This gives birth to stubborn nature in the child. You as a parent need to be their first friend with whom they can share anything and everything without any feeling of ifs or buts. But in today’s rat race world where everyone is behind more fame, money, and power and with the nuclear family trend the child feels all alone in the big house provided by the parents.
Slowly the rift between the parents and the child grows considerably and the child no longer listens to the parents and starts behaving the way it wants. It can also fall in bad company if it comes across selfish friends and this can go from bad to worse. Even today there are families where the parents take a break for the nurturing of their child till they reach an age of 10 to 12 years when they become self-sufficient. They then resume work and are satisfied that they played an important role in the upbringing of their only child.
Swati Joshi, Science Facilitator (Middle School)
