Childbirth is an easy task. Yes, you read it right. Childbirth is much easier than raising the kids to adulthood till they become independent. Parenting is a task of raising a child.
Table of Contents
Why parenting?
Children are future adults. Any society is made up of children and adults of different ages. Today’s children will decide the future of any society and nation.
Forget about society and nations. You and every other parent to be best and his/her children should easily make their livelihood and respectable position in society.
What is parenting?
By definition parenting means child rearing, so that the physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development of children is encouraged in a manner. Being a paediatrician we are often asked about the best parenting practices.
Physical development
Physical development is the development of the body of children measured by their weight and height also the developmental milestones which are physical.
Social development
Social development is developing the skills to make interpersonal relationships which are mature and normal considered by society.
Emotional development
Emotional development is controlling the emotion and using the skills for the development of one’s own and the people around.
Intellectual development
Intellectual development is development of intelligence to the normal. Intellectual development helps in progress in academics and career and also helps to support emotional and social development.
Children learn by imitation. Often they imitate their parents. They learn different behaviours from the parents.
Role of parents
Parents are often biological parents or those who have adopted the children. So parents are often anxious about the parenting skills as children learn from them.
Parents play a major role in the overall development of children. For children often their parents are their role model. So before knowing anything about parenting styles, parents should examine themselves as they are role models for the children.
You can not expect children to excel in life unless they have good support and guidance from their role models, often the parents. For children of bad parents it becomes difficult to adjust with society and excel in life. So, it is extremely important for the parents to learn good behaviour first.
The seeds we harvest today become the large mango trees tomorrow. Selecting appropriate seeds for the future fruits is in your hand. Parenting works in a similar manner. More you take efforts in the correct direction makes it easier for your children.
Parenting styles
Most discussed topics are parenting styles. Well, there are many people giving theoretical knowledge around the world. The fact is parenting skills are different and relevant in different societies. Parenting styles are normal to one social condition and time may not be relevant in other societies and other time periods.
You can not justify you will do this thing with your children because your parents did it with you in your childhood. With time the social and emotional norms needed in a society always change. Depending on the current time and considering the future you should decide and adopt your parenting styles.
A parenting style can not be rigid all the time. You may agree to some norm and you may disagree to some. That is fine. Parenting style should be a blend of all the different styles for the different problems and for the different children.
Children, yes they do have personal traits like adults do have. Some children are always happy, some are always cranky. So the parenting styles should be different even for siblings depending on their nature. You should understand the nature of your child to decide about it.
Your social and economical class also heavily influences the things you can afford for your children and things you can’t. The suitable parenting styles should be examined and adopted as per the need of your situation. Parent’s educational and intellectual level does matter while handling the different situations.
Here intellectual and educational levels are different. Not all highly intellectual people are all educated and vise versa. You can encourage intellectual and educational development of your children even if you are not very much educated yourself.
Working-class children often grow up at a disadvantage with the schooling, communities, and level of parental attention available compared to those from the middle-class or upper-class. Also, lower working-class families do not get the kind of networking that the middle and upper classes do through helpful family members, friends, and community individuals or groups as well as various professionals or experts.