Lessons to learn from Christ Church and Colombo

“A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone else”………Billy Graham

Probably the most important positive activities of our life are to raise our children properly- in a disciplined manner and with age-old values;  failing which, the child may grow into a demotivated and disorganised aimless individual.

As children develop from infants to teens to adults they go through a series of developmental stages that are important to all aspects of their personhood including physical, intellectual, emotional and social.  The proper role of the parent is to provide encouragement, support and access to activities that enable the child to master key developmental tasks. The support of the parent every stage change as the need of the child varies from one age to another. The little infant needs support to walk, to learn, to get accustomed to life. The child grows up to learn the games, studies, music, dance, painting. Every side of life which is beautiful, which imparts wisdom must touch the little child who needs to grow up into a responsible individual. The mother at home is the best teacher for the child as the father remains busy in earning the livelihood. The other members of the family must contribute to shaping up the life of the child as they are supposed to be a more experienced lot.

There are pretty much cases where the mother is working or the parents are divorced. In both cases, it is the mother who must design her time schedule to bring up the child rightly so that there will be no regret later. Talking to the child frequently, keeping one eye on his activities or pampering the child’s likings are not very difficult. In the case of the single or divorced mother, help can be taken from the family. Company of grandparents are desirable as long as the pampering is within the limit. Grandparents too must cooperate with their child’s child to grow up correctly so that the family name and fame remain intact.

Raising children isn’ easy. First of all. when a couple takes the vow of marriage, they must plan their life ahead. The arrival of a child is obvious, but how they prepare themselves to take care of the child play a key role in the child’s life. Whether they are ready to spend time with the child or they aren’t capable of doing it for their own work must be sorted out. A parent is their child’s first teacher and should remain their best teacher throughout life.  A parent has to function as a coach, a parent has to expose the child to age-appropriate challenges to encourage overall development. A child will explore his own environment to learn about life but the parent must be there to guide him about the do’s and don’ts.

Why am I writing all these when I have written on parenthood earlier too.

The incident of Colombo, SriLanka has shaken me once again. Terrible bomb blasts have killed so many people. The incident of Christ Church hasn’t been faded away and there happened the serial blasts in Colombo. Deep down in my heart, I am feeling that the parents are failing terribly. It is the family which could not raise the child properly.

Am I right? Are my thoughts correct? May we debate on this issue and find solutions to stop this unpleasant, pathetic living of human beings throughout this world.

Family is the single most important influence in a child’s life. From their first moments of life, children depend on parents and family to protect them and provide for their needs. Parents and family form a child’s first relationships. They are a child’s first teachers and act as role models in how to act and how to experience the world around them. By nurturing and teaching children during their early years, families play an important role in making sure children are ready to learn when they enter school. Children thrive when parents are able to actively promote their positive growth and development. Every parent knows that it’s sometimes difficult to do this important work without help, support, and additional resources. Come whatever difficulty, parents must make sure that the child reads good books, learn mathematics, read History, draw colourful pictures, plant trees, water the garden, do the household work, listen to music, learn to play outside. So many things are there to learn and a child must spend time on learning the things he likes so that there is the least scope for distractions. To raise a child correctly, which is the toughest task though, the parents and the family must be educated. Hundred per cent literacy for the world population is the need of the hour. The more people read, the more they know. Let us go back to the days of hard copies, let us realise that there was a magic in the smell of a new book, there was magic when we drew with wooden coloured pencils or crayons on the hard sheets. Let us bring back the connection between the paper and the soul, the technology seems to be faking the world.

This is how we can think about to build a better world. I will continue my research on this same issue and will be posting my write-ups. Meanwhile, I would appreciate reader’s views on this article so that I can enhance my thoughts and wisdom.

Thanks for reading.

**Feature image is collected from Unsplash. Clicked by Ben White.