Parents Role in Child's Development

There was a feeble old woman whose loving husband died. So she went to live with her son and his wife and their daughter. Everyday the woman's sight grew worse and her hearing grew worse. Some days her hands trembled so badly that; peas on her plate rolled onto the floor and the soup ran from her cup. Her son and his wife could not help but be annoyed at the mess she made and one day they said enough was enough. So they set up a little table for the old woman in a corner next to the broom closet and made her eat all her meals there alone. She would look at them at mealtime with tear-filled eyes from across the room but they hardly talked to her while they ate except to scold her for dropping a spoon or a fork.

One evening, just before dinner, the little girl was sitting on the floor playing with her building blocks. "What are you making?" Her father asked earnestly. "I'm building a little table for you and mom." She said, "So you can eat by yourself in the corner some day when I get big." The mother and father were moved to silent for what seemed like an eternity then they started to weep. In that instant they became aware of the nature of their action and the sadness they had caused. That night they led the old woman back to her rightful place at the big dinner table and from that day on she ate all her meals with them and when a little morsel of food fell off the table or a fork strayed onto the floor no body seemed to mind anymore.

Children are the most valuable assets; they can become your best friends. If parents really understand the importance of their role in development of their children they can control the type of future they are forming.

Every child wants to be loved. Attention is a principle form of love. We need to ask ourselves how much time we really devote in giving real attention to our children. Real attention means giving 100% attention in listening to our child. Listening means looking at things the way they see them. There are very few instances when we are just listening to them with our whole attention. Even if we listen to them sometimes, we tend to judge them. Most of the parents fail to give attention to their children because they think; what their child is saying is of less worth and consequences.

A child, to a greater extent is the reflection of her parents. As per psychologists more than half of the learning happens in the first six years of life. Keeping in mind the above two facts it becomes even more important for parents to conduct themselves in a more responsible way in front of their children because each waking moment this silent little watcher is taking his/her lessons from them. Psychoanalysts have given much more to ponder; they opine that a man is nothing but collection of his past experiences. So as parents we must try to control and regulate their quality of exposure to the outside world.