Abhishek Raina
As a parent, you want the best for your children. That doesn’t necessarily mean you want them to have the best clothes, latest toys or the coolest gadgets. Mostly, you just want them to be safe, secure and successful in life. The parent child relationship is the one that nurtures physical, emotional and social development of the child. This relationship lays the foundation for the child’s responsibility, choices in life and overall behavior. It can also affect strength of their social, physical, mental and emotional health. Presently, we are living in the age of gadgets & technology. We all are influenced by the latest gadgets and spend most of the time on them, leaving family and peers apart. Our relations are very much effected by it. Sometimes it also leads to void between relations. The computer era has also affected relationship between parents and children and on top of that social media has involved children more than anything else. So, it is time to put efforts in nurturing the relation with our children. We have to take care of them by getting involved with them and spending good amount of time with them daily.
Spending quality time with child: Children imitate by observing what their role models, most often what parents do. Spending quality time with them will help them learn a lot. Parents can help in developing various skills including communication, social writing, reading etc in order to shape children personality. We, as parents, should spare time from our hectic and tiring schedule, even if it’s just for a few minutes. Quality time is the time that we can give to our children by giving them our undivided attention and getting involved in constructive tasks. We should also let children decide sometimes that to how they want to spend time with you. If they want to go on walk with you, want to play sports with you or anything else. Spare time and spend it listening and talking to your child. Also create some routine habits such as reading a short-book before bed-time. Sometime, cook and eat together. It will give the family time to talk to one another as well as inculcate team work. Reinforce positive behavior with your appreciation. When you are spending quality time with your child at that time try to avoid discussing other issues and refrain from talking about chores or professional commitments and other duties. These days, most of the responsibilities of parents are given to gadgets. For e.g. now days parents are buying the online course for their children just because in their busy schedule they don’t have time to teach their child how to learn and how to prepare for the exam and other things. These things also create a gap between the parents and child, which affects child the most.
Quality parenting: In this era of modern technology, parenting system and the parenting qualities are also changed. Expectations of parents have also heightened with access to technology and more information. There are endless comparisons to be made and quality care is dictated not by personal choice but by best option available. There is an increasing pressure on parents the right way. Presently providing shelter food and education are not deemed adequate parenting anymore. Children frequently use technology and often ignore their surrounding environment. They prefer facing sophisticated technology they have than playing with their peers in playground or in environment surrounding them. Social communication between children and environment is increasingly reduced. Effect of gadget usage is forgetting social life. As a result, they are lack in interaction and communication because they become introvert and impatient.
This situation can change their behavior and they will withdraw themselves from social life and can reduce their level of creativity. Parents have to take care of their children and try to limit the time of using the gadgets. Parent also have to educate their child about the unnecessary things available on the internet and have to limit usage of phone.
Good Modeling: It’s said that kids absorb 10 per cent of what you say and 90 per cent of what you do. In other words, being person you want your kid to be is the most powerful parenting choice you can make. Modeling lives and breathe in your behavior: your words, action, and your feelings (spoken and unspoken) are deposited into your child and shape his or her identity. Whether you like it or not, kids develop personal values and life philosophy based on their parent’s choices. When it comes to your kid’s psychological health, parenting modeling is real as DNA.
Structure limits and boundaries: Let’s review healthy structure: providing children with consistent schedule, routines and relationships. Healthy limits; curbing destructive or risky behaviors in kids by fostering good judgment. Teaching kids to honor and respect the physical and emotional space between people. No child is born with these values, parents who provide effective leadership can only teach them. Healthy structure, limits and boundaries lay the foundation for good habits that last a lifetime. They also nourish confidence by reducing fears and anxieties in children. Narrate Personal Experience: Personal experiences areas like stories and all kids love hearing stories. Share stories from your own life. Where abiding by a moral value had a positive experience in your life, and your child is bound to understand better.
Value System: Values are very important in parenting since they deeply influence all behavior and attitudes and lessons on good manners. These should be inculcated in children from the day they start learning, for this help them interact with the people they meet in their daily lives and shapes them into a loving and considerate person.
Equality: In modern times it is also necessary to teach our child Sanskrit philosophy ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ meaning world is one family. A human being should be respected regardless of the colour, caste or religion. In a country where political situation is turbulent and social evils are still brazenly out in the open, a person has to imbibe ways of confronting the world form the age of schooling. Teaching children to firmly consider equity towards everyone they come across so that the seeds of backdated habits narrow-mindness do not grow stronger in their roots.
Self-evaluation: Consulting the other members of family for advice and making decision is an important practice. However, self-evaluation is also a necessary part of teaching that trains the child to develop their personality and intellectual faculties. The process of ‘Atma-vichar’ helps one regard their decisions throughout life. Due to liberalization, industrialization and globalization rapid changes are occurring in almost all social sciences. The value possessed and their attitudes according to the changes are occurring in the education so called philosophical foundation of India are declining day to day with the country in a state of social turbulence, the goals and functions of formal education need to be reassessed and educated.
Someone had said, ‘If wealth is lost nothing is lost, if health is lost something is lost but if character is lost everything is lost’. Best among all things is character in today’s scenario. Our values have been discarded by the new generation in the age of new fashion. In such a situation it is very important for someone to lay down basic principles for us so that we may lead a bright life. The value education completes these needs very easily with an impact on the young minds.