The demands placed on
parents have grown more and more complex. Nevertheless, the gift of your time is
one of the greatest gifts you can give to your child.
Ways to Stay in Touch
Emotionally
Keep a watchful eye on your
child’s moods:
Are they happy or depressed? Long bouts with
depression are a sure sign something is going on. Sit down with your child
and have an open, honest talk with him/her.
My daughter
suddenly stopped going out with friends on week-ends. She locked herself in
her room and did not want to socialize with anyone. After talking to her,
she confided in me. It turned out that her friends stopped inviting her out,
because she refused to partake in smoking and drinking alcohol. At first, I
attributed her staying home to her being overloaded with too many AP
classes. Peer pressure can wreak havoc. This is why as parents we need to
stay abreast on what’s going on emotionally
in our children’s life.
Set aside time to discuss
your values and morals:
In my
household, we have routine talks about our values and morals. We discuss why
they are important. I believe children need to hear from their parents about
such issues. We can’t afford to assume that our children understand fully
why certain actions are not socially acceptable. It is our responsibility as
parents to discuss openly these critical topics.
Allow your children the freedom to make their
own decisions:
Sometimes in our zeal to see our children do
well; we often become too overbearing and stifle our children’s abilities to
make their own decisions.
My youngest son played baseball. He is left
handed and quickly became the MVP of his baseball team. In fact, that summer
his team won the championship for his age group. Everyone attributed the
championship to my son’s great pitching. I was on top of the world.
The following season, something changed. My
son refused to go to practice. His actions left me totally baffled. After
much probing, he broke down and told me the reason behind his refusal to go
to practice. Two of the players taunted and picked on him constantly.
Bringing the problem to the coach’s attention did not help because the boys
in question continued to make my son’s life miserable.
He eventually left the team and much to my
dismay grew to dislike baseball. What I learned from that situation is we
must give our children support and allow them to make their own choices. I
am very blessed. My son has natural athletic abilities. He now plays
basketball and gets along well with all the players.
Our role as
parents is to help guide decision making, but must allow room so our
children can make their own decisions, as that is how they learn and grow.
Ways to Stay in Touch
Educationally
Children come with no guarantees; however,
there are a lot we can do as parents to keep up with our children’s needs in
terms of schoolwork. As a mom and an educator the following tips have been
quite helpful.
Encourage your child to spend time in daily
reading, writing and studying. This helps with the development of good study
skills.
Be sure to establish a set study hour where
your student is reading or studying every night regardless of whether
homework has been given.
Do not limit your child’s learning to just
the school curriculum. Local libraries offer a variety of classes on many
different topics for free. You can encourage your child to participate in
these classes, so they can expand their horizons beyond the classroom.
Be a role model by
being excited and enthusiastic about learning new things yourself. A great
bonus, often time libraries offer adult classes the same hour they offer
classes for children. How easy is that, your child can attend a class while
you go off to your class?
As parents we must
prioritize our time, so we can stay engaged in our children’s emotional and
educational growth. And by doing so, it should provide a sound foundation for
their growth and success as individuals.
