What To Do As A Parent After International Children’s Day
Overview
So I was thinking about writing something for International Children’s Day. I thought about writing about the day itself, why it is important to children and their parents bla bla bla but I changed my mind. I asked myself, what is relevant? What do parents need to hear at this point in time? And I came up with the topic you see right up there, what to do as a parent after International children’s day.
As mothers, it is easy to get caught up in our own lives and forget that our children too have lives of their own. That they are already individuals, with wants and needs, with feelings and beliefs and most importantly with a thirst to know more through hearing, seeing, and feeling.
The process of making a child, though rife with difficulties, is not as complicated as the process of bringing that child up in the right manner. Trying to make a living sometimes leaves the mother little time to actually have much of a hand in the raising of their children. Childcare is however something that should not be ignored.
You will find that you have to make a lot of sacrifices and put in hefty amounts of energy to share your child into an individual to be reckoned with in the future. Your time starts now. Children grow up so fast that you might close your eye one day and open it to see your child as an adult.
Children need all the love and care you can offer. They need guidance, security, and protection from the sordid parts of life. Exposing a child too early to such could have terrible consequences. What are you doing to protect your child today? You baked biscuits and made sweets for them yesterday.
You give them a lot of pocket money but is that the extent of your display of love? Do you there for your child when he or she is crying? Or do you leave it to them to handle their own problems? This article is for every woman who is a parent and those aspiring to be parents in the future.
Although its focus is the African and particularly the Nigerian mother, it also holds wisdom for mothers of other nationalities and races. I will be talking about the parent’s treatment of a child, along the outline of four major areas of childhood development which are Physical Development, cognitive development, psychosocial development, and emotional development.
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Physical Development
When you have a child, your overwhelming love and your desire to make sure he/she is properly fed can result in your overfeeding that child until he is overweight. Growing up as an overweight child is no easy task because of peer influence and societal attitude to plus size persons.
Giving your child healthy and nutritious meals is the key to helping your child maintain a stable weight. Give your children breakfast every morning. Don’t just pack food up in lunch boxes and shoo away hungry children. They might get used to it but it doesn’t change the fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and helps in both physical and cognitive development.
If you have a problem getting your children up to eat breakfast then you could try this simple trick of waking them up two hours before you are to leave. It ensures that they become hungry and are more agreeable towards the meal. Children should be taught to sleep early too, watching movies into the night is very unhealthy for them.
Incorporate exercise into your child’s playtime. Instead of playing with toys buy a skipping rope and organize a skipping session, play a hide, and seek game. These would help to keep your child healthy, strong, and also develop a desirable competitive attitude in him/her.
Foods that improve the physical development of your child are mostly food filled with protein like eggs and foods filled with antioxidants and nutrients like fruits and vegetables. Encouraging your child to consume healthy food will help prevent stunted growth and gaining excess weight.
Cognitive Development
A child is a bundle of joy and also a world of possibilities wrapped up in one body. You can help your child at an early age by taking measures to ensure that he/she develops proper cognitive skills.
The experiences of children when they are very little goes a long way in shaping their attitudes and behaviors later in life. There are many ways you can ensure your child develops great thinking skills and a great attitude to learning.
You can do this by practicing the following things:
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Introducing Your Child to Books
This could start with reading bedtime stories and then graduate to watching them read. Cultivating a habit of reading in your kids would help greatly when they become older. Cuddle your child and read with him/her. Believe me, you’ll find yourself bonding deeper with your child.
2. Introducing Your Child to Puzzles
Solving puzzles increases your child skills in problem-solving, calculation, and overall cognitive strength. You could start simple, arrange some items on the floor, name them, remove one or a few, and ask your child to identify which of the items left. Then graduate to harder puzzles, letting your child continually flex his/her cognitive muscles.
3. Introducing Your Child to Music
Research has shown that children who learn music become significantly more intelligent than their counterparts who don’t. Introduce your child to music mama, you will reap the benefits later.
4. Talking To And Spending Quality Time With Your Child
Some of y’all have points on this one already but I can’t emphasize how important this is enough. Children are forever curious and they ask like a million questions per minute lol. It is your duty to answer as many of those questions as you can because your child needs it. Look at them, they are so little and the world so big. They are trying hard and doing really great on their quest to getting acquainted with all the smells, tastes, and feelings in the world.
Talking to your child also gives you an insight into his personality and helps you know how best to take care of his psychosocial and emotional needs. Spending time with your child also includes taking them to places like the park and the beach. This expands their horizon and increases their understanding of the world.
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Psychosocial Development
It is normal to be kind of selfish of your child’s love and attention but you need to understand that your alone time(9 months of pregnancy) with your sweet baby is over. Your baby would go through changes that would make him more independent and able to fend for himself.
It also means he would rely less on you and make friendships with people even outside of your family. This stage of development is when you should begin to teach your child societal ethics and values. Using hints to tell her what is right and what is wrong. Teach your child to take responsibility for little things like brushing his own teeth and trying to tie his own shoes.
When you congratulate him on a job well done, he becomes more confident. Children should also be encouraged to establish relationships between themselves and other kids their age.
Emotional Development
In African society, the emotions of children are rarely taken into account. The African child finds soon enough that his/her parents are not the best persons to talk to when going through emotional turmoil. Can your child tell you about what happened at school without heavy filters?
Can your child rely on you to be there when he needs you? Does your child see you as a safe haven or as someone who always wields the cane? If your child finds herself in some kind of trouble, are you the person who comes to mind? The general attitude of leaving children “on their own” breeds adults who are emotionally deficient and scared to love themselves and finally their own children.
This is really an unending circle of love or of neglect, it depends on which you choose. No matter what you do, that child is going to grow up and pretty fast too. I beg you, let your child remember his/her childhood as a happy time. There is so much unhappiness and struggle in adult life, the least we could do is help these kids enjoy their time as children and at the same time arm them with resources to be better adults.
We can not deny that society would be better if positive changes were effected in the family, which is the most important component of society. We all need to do our quota in ensuring our future is insured. Take care of your child and you are caring for the world. Raising a child is a great task, but the joys more than make up for it.
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