RE: Mindful Monday - Helping Our Children
Teach a child fact from fiction from birth to seven years of age, once school going age everyone is putting new information into their heads. There is no time for baby talk a young mind is like a sponge.
Spare the rod, spoil the child, no not beating them up, when a baby crawls to an electrical socket what do you do, flick little fingers with stern warning, this is where they learn boundaries, or protect them from imminent danger buying socket covers to hide, leaving the child none the wiser.
Let the children play outdoors, fall in the sand, come home dirty it is all about learning.
Sadly times have changed, children don't get the opportunity to explore, parents give them gifts for accomplishing the most trivial of things, they never learn how to earn on one side, the other side is impoverished people who hold down (or are seeking) work, leaving the child with child minders who have more than one child at a time, not enough attention being shared in formative years.
Very open ended conversation since this affects different people in different walks of life, main thing parents do need to know it is not up to the educators (IMHO) to teach children the basics in life.
Very well said @joanstewart. I completely agree. We have to let them live and make mistakes and most of all get dirty.
My ex (only did this with my daughter) said he didn't want to say no to her, because she was going to hear a lifetime of no's. I asked him then what was he going to do when he needed to tell her no? I understood what he wanted, but in my mind that is where they start learning boundaries. You can't rationalize to a 7 month old crawling around that putting their finger in a socket is a bad thing. Yelling 'No' just startles them. So yes I agree a flick on their fingers is the way to go. It kind of puts that idea too that touch = hurt. We had very different views on parenting (one reason he's an ex).
I tried to be as open ended as possible and not 'inflict' too much personal opinion. If we don't start talking about these issues, nothing will change. It has to start somewhere.
Politicians/government are trying to push an agenda with rulings, personally I feel those first 7 years are critical when the parent teaches right from wrong, fact from fiction, lots of reading to fill a young mind with ideas.
Once they go to school they should now how to behave, be able to have enough knowledge to stand up for their rights, I know it sounds a crazy start to a young life but life is exceptionally challenging, there is not time to waste on baby talk.
Most fairy tales in books will take a young parent far, think of Hansel and Gretel going into the woods, it teaches children never to accept anything from people they don't know, this needs to be explained that the child fully understands the concept.
Have an awesome day and keep up with making people think @tryskele