Parent’s role in developing the child’s self concepts

‘Self concept’ or ‘self identity’ is the manner in which a person thinks about himself. It is the awareness of oneself in terms of perceptions and the way in which he views himself. This idea about oneself primarily develops in the early on years of life. The first five years of a child’s life are the most crucial ones as they determine the future of the child’s identity in front of his own eyes.
In this course of development, the child tends to learn and pick a lot of things from the environment. His environment in the elementary years consists of his parents and intimate family members. Their behavior and attitude towards the child plays a very important role in forming of self concepts by the child.

The child absorbs the opinions and ideas of his family members and tends to formulate and shape his thinking accordingly. Parents are the makers of the child’s thought process about himself.
Self concepts are formed in the early years but do alter and change in the times to follow. Friends and peers make a profound impact on our thinking patterns and beliefs. In this phase of the child, parents play an important role in reiterating the child of values which not only helps the child in building his self concepts but makes them stronger.
The parent must help the child to develop positive self concepts and eliminate the negative ones. This would add the right amount of confidence in the child and help him to survive and bypass the path of life.
The development of the right kind of attitudes for oneself is very essential as they determine the life of an individual. Parents must extend a helping hand to their child at every juncture they surpass and help him enhance and augment his self concepts.

Money management and role of parents

In today’s world money has become the most crucial part of all of our lives. Without money, life seems to appear like a vacuum, existence in which becomes a Herculean task.
Children, from the time they start learning to walk, comprehend the meaning of money. They begin to associate everything with money. It begins with meager amounts. For e.g. “Mummy can I get 5 Rs. to buy a chocolate?” This is the initial stage, which tends to develop as a habit. Once the child forms a habit at such a small age, it lingers around with him throughout his life.

As the child grows the requirement of money increases by the day. The concept of ‘pocket money’ comes in as the child enters school. With the entrance of the child into college, and peer pressure attacking the child from all sides, the necessity of money increases. The ‘image’ of spending unwisely becomes important in order to be a part of the ‘cream crowd’ of the college. Hanging around at hucca joints, watching movies, buying the trendiest clothes, attending with friends becomes the everyday affair. This therefore amplifies the need for money.

The role of parents in this scenario becomes very critical. Parents need to be observant of their child’s behavior. They must control the usage of money by their children so that they do not turn into avaricious kids in future.
Outflow of surfeit money from the parent’s end, results in the child not realizing the value of money and spending injudiciously.
Parents must make a conscious effort to train the child to use money in wise and controlled manner. The value of earning money and its handling should be taught to the child from a tender age itself.

.The role of parents in ensuring Social Skills in children.

People constitute a very crucial part of man’s life. Life begins with people around and ends with the same entity. To live in an approving manner with ‘people’ is highly essential.

Social skills are the skills required to be possessed by a person in order to live a cordial and sociable life with the society. They form the most essential part of an individual’s persona. They not only help him to form amiable relations with the people around him but also augment his living. These skills are instilled into us right from the time of birth. Parents our first teachers, are responsible for imbibing these vital skills in us.
From teaching us the imperative and fundamental ‘Golden words’ to the mannerisms to be adopted in public, they are accountable for all.

The child’s mind is like an empty slate in which the parents inscribe various values, morals and important life skills. These skills are very crucial in the upbringing of the child. The parents play a very important role in instilling these values in them.
‘Parenting’ is a skill in itself which the parents have to deal with a lot of persistence. It is very indispensable for the parents to indulge in the right kind of ‘reward’ and ‘punishment’ activity in order to ensure the presence of the right skills in children.
Approval of the right kind of behavior and denial of the wrong behavior is a must. The child must learn to associate himself with the accurate modes of behavior.
Many a times the child tends to get into a state of confusion due to varied behaviors from parents and grandparents. This should be avoided in order to avoid conflicting ideologies in the minds of naive children.
Parents must ensure all these facets of parenting to facilitate the appropriate upbringing of their children.

Understanding Adolescent behavior

Once a toddler, taking minuscule steps on the floor, learning to walk with the support of our creators…falling at several junctures…being in a confused state of mind at every succeeding minute…seeking approval of ourselves and our decisions on a regular basis from our peers and parents…sometimes getting into conflicts with the very people whom we seek help and get love from…Parents seem to be ‘road blocks’ on our way to a free and happy go lucky lifestyle. But have we ever seen the story from the other side?
The period of ‘stress and storm’, ‘ADOLESCENCE’ which the adolescent goes through, is the most difficult period for a parent to deal with.
At this stage of development the adolescent undergoes various physiological, emotional, cognitive and social changes. Conflict with parents is a major contributor to the turbulence of this period. The contrasting desires of both the entities contribute to the increasing variance. Parents definitely face difficulties relinquishing control, resulting in inconsistent communication and potentially escalating negative consequences for all involved. As this conflicting atmosphere becomes a daily affair, the time that the child spends at home also declines.
Communication plays the most important role in this phase for the child as well as the parents’ life. Most of the parent-adolescent clashes tend to be about mundane issues such as personal appearance, curfews, usage of telephone, completing chores, choice of friends and many more. Parents are constantly worried about loosing control over their innocent but growing child’s life and thus resort to regular monitoring of all their activities.
This behavior of the parents is interpreted as an interference, which makes life full of chaos, bedlam and stress. This occurs as a recurring cycle resulting in dysfunctional family relation.
Parents must adopt a balanced but friendly attitude towards their children, thereby helping the child to surpass this convoluted stage of life with ease and comfort. This will not only assure the child of the love and considerate attitude of parents towards him or her, but would also weave a relationship of friendliness and openness between the two.

Importance of nutrition for a child’s growth

Nutrition awareness in children is essential. Parents should teach their child about different foods and their effects on our body. If a child learns about all this at an early age, he/she can live a healthy life throughout. Healthy eating habits and regular exercise should be a regular part of a family's life; this will help children to emulate their parents who will in turn provide a good example for them.

Nutrition has become the growing need of the day. With more and more children falling prey to diseases and disorders, a lot of emphasis should be given on the five major food groups, all of which are required for good health. Dairy products provide proteins, vitamins and minerals and hence they are an excellent source of calcium. A child should at least have two to three servings of milk, yogurt or buttermilk each day.

It is always better to provide your child with skim milk and nonfat yogurt. Children should avoid eating high fat cheese and ice cream as they are harmful for our body. Candies and chocolates should also be restricted in a child’s diet as sugars supply a large amount of calories, with little nutritional value. Parents play an important role to teach children to live a healthy and a fit life.

Bed time stories for children

Which child is not fond of bed time stories? I have seen parents finding it difficult to find stories to narrate it to their kids every day. Nursery rhymes are usually narrated to their kids by their grandmas or moms themselves. Though I haven’t seen many fathers being good at the art, one can always try!

It is not necessary that you tell your child only about Cinderella and three bears’ stories. If you know about something that you want your child to improve on, develop your own stories in such a way that the story has a moral from which the child can learn. Make sure that you do not narrate stories that involve ghosts and devils because this may affect the child and he or she may not be able to sleep well. Some may even complain of evil dreams.

Short stories are also a great way to spend quality time with your children. It is very important that you spend such time with them because only then a child will open up to tell you about the daily activities of his life.

There are a lot of books too that are available in the market that tell wonderful stories. Your child may not be able to read them but they will definitely help you in narrating a good story to your kid. Gifting story books to children is also a great idea. Story books contain attractive visuals in it and hence when you are narrating a bed time story to your children, you can show them the visuals of the story and they will be able to imagine the characters of that story in a better way.

Extra curricular Activities for Children

In today’s competitive world, your child is expected to be a master at all. Also, going with the popular idiom- All work and no play makes jack a dull boy proves that extra curricular activities should be encouraged.

Many parents force their children to join drawing classes, hobby classes, dancing classes, skating classes, elocution classes, etc to join - the idea to let the child do what he or she enjoys. If you force anything on the child neither is your child going to enjoy it nor will you be satisfied with their performance.

I have seen another species of parents that lay too much importance on academics. Here, you child will only become a ‘book worm’. There is a strong need for activities outside the academic world that teach them a lot of things that books perhaps may not be able to teach them.

It is important that you hone a good skill in your child. If your child loves art, then take him to a peaceful place (may be a green meadow along the country side) with a canvas and allow him to paint whatever he wants to.

If you have budget constraints and cannot afford classes that many parents enroll their children in, you can sit at home and involve your kid in a lot of extra curricular activities. For example, go skating or cycling with your kid. If they are interested in cookery, teach them a simple dish or two!

It all boils down to involving your kid in something that he or she loves doing. A lot of schools also lay stress on extra curricular activities and prefer children who are all- rounders rather than just academic scholars.