The Importance Of Childhood

Kids whirl through childhood, loving their parents with a passion so natural and innocent that adults find it difficult to comprehend at times. Instant softening and loving that kids give to parents without ever knowing they are doing it, is something parents should be indebted to their children. These are the years when the child clings on to the comfort of his parents and home while trying to grasp the novel experiences of the world. Hence, being around for the children, engaging in simple activities with them and spending quality time have no substitutes. For example in U.S. on typical weekdays, dual-income-parents get very little time to spend with their children, usually 4 or fewer waking hours. This becomes source of guilt to many parents.

Parent’s job is to motivate child to develop a sense of self that is self-determining, natural and at par with reality. If you treat your walking toddler as if he can’t walk, you diminish his confidence and distort reality. Once he is capable of doing something well, congratulate yourself for the job well done and move on. There are actually two stages of parenthood and it's hard to differentiate when the transition goes from one to the other. When kids are really young, 1 to 2 years old, you can't be too loving; you just need to support and pay attention to child's need. But at some point somewhere around 2 or 3, you need to change yourself because, kids need independence and challenge. Otherwise, prolonging and unnecessary lingering intervention makes him feel bad about himself (if he’s young) or angry at you (if he’s a teenager). What he wants to do at this stage of life is to prove that he can do the thing. The little challenge that starts in infancy presents him the opportunity for ‘successful failure,’ the failure he can live with and grow from. To rush too quickly or to protect him too early is nothing but to deprive him of these challenges which he needs later in life to handle similar demands of life. Let him feel the depth of life. Doing things for him unnecessarily or prematurely can reduce motivation, increase dependency and damage child’s own