Parenthood is a very interesting thing to participate in. As a parent, you are trying to do something nobody has ever manage to do it well. What is the best way to bring up your children is a never-ending search? Even if you have successfully raise your first child, you may get into trouble with your second.
Transform Yourself First
In this arena of mystery, compassion, and love, what you want is to deliver your best self. So, what is the best thing you can do? The most important thing I would advise you to work upon yourself a bit and improve your inner qualities before raising your kids.
On a given holiday, sit at a peaceful place and observe your inner beings – How do you think? How do you talk? How do you sit? How do you stand? What do you do? etc. By questioning yourself, you will know yourself better, and knowing yourself is the most important criterion to raise your children.
When you become a parent, it is high time that you look at yourself because children never follow what you say them to do but they will definitely follow what you do. Children will pick up rapidly anything and everything you do. So, one of the foremost things is to groom yourself and build a character that you want to see in your children. It will create a required ambiance that will help your children to grow more positively and productively.
Create Amicable Ambiance at Home
Creating the necessary ambiance is a large part of parenthood. If you manage to create the right kind of atmosphere for your children, it will obviously instill love, joy, necessary discipline in your children. In this way an atmosphere of empathy, honesty, and a sense of responsibility will prevail at your home. You will find that your kids are growing up happily, developing friendly manners, and most importantly they are taking personal responsibility for their every action.
Providing opportunities is another important part of raising your kids. Each one of us can provide opportunities to our children as long as they are available to us. You cannot provide opportunities that you do not have access to. You can only provide according to your limitations. You only can put your best effort to provide maximum support to raise your kids.
Teach Your Kids Important Lessons of Life
As a conscious parent, it is very important what lessons of life you teach your children and most importantly how you teach them.
1. Teach Your Kids to Question Everything
One of the most important lessons you can teach your children is to question everything, not with suspicion but with a genuine wanting to know. Questioning can become a very healthy process if you consciously allow it to flourish in your children. A question is essentially an instrument that will help your children dig a little deeper about any event. That is the whole purpose of a question. So, always encourage your child to question anything and everything under the sun and beyond. Your children should not refrain from asking questions and when they ask questions, please give 100% attention to it. Show genuine interest in their questions without thinking it is meaningful or not. Do not judge their questions with your preconceived notion of intelligence.
2. How to Answer Your Children’s Query
The next important part is how to answer their questions. Never run from their questions no matter how much uncomfortable it may sound. While answering their questions, you have to be very frank with them. You have to categorically tell them that the answer is absolutely your own point of view based on your own experiences of life and they are free to build up their own opinion about the asked matter based on their own perspective and judgment. It is very important that your children can constantly exercise their own intelligence and explore the world around them. Through this process, your child may grow to maximum potential.
3. Teach Your Children the Value of Struggle
If you get something after a bit of struggle, you realize the importance of it. Similarly, your children need to face some sort of struggle before getting anything in life. It should not be a cakewalk as you can afford it.
Suppose, your kids will understand the value of food only if you feed them when they are hungry. But if you feed them on empty stomach, then firstly they will vomit, and secondly, they will never be able to understand the value of food. Always try to fulfill the genuine demand of your children which is not harmful and affordable to you. At the same time refrain from providing them excessive things even if you can afford them.
4. Form the Habit of Listening “NO”
Your children need to form the habit of hearing “NO” from their very childhood. If they are only habituated with “YES”, they will revolt in their adulthood, if you say “NO”. It is very easy to fulfill the demands of childhood but gets difficult with age. Bad habits should be nipped in the buds.
5. Make Your Child Financially Accountable
It would be a very mature parenting decision if you start giving pocket money from their very childhood. Pocket money will make them understand the importance of money, the art of savings, and practical knowledge about finance. Everything they get, they should feel it as a reward and not a donation. This is called conditioning. If you condition your children well, they will be able to manage their life successfully.
6. Teach Your Children to take Personal Responsibility
Do not tell your kids straight forward that something is right or something is wrong. Make them think about the matter and let them build their own opinion. Through this process, they will develop the power of deep thinking and will be able to analyze the matter with a holistic view. As a result, their mind will be developed and they will be competent enough to take their own decision which is very important to lead a successful life.
Conclusion
In life, there is no insurance or guarantee that everything will happen as per your plan. Raising your children successfully depends on various parameters and situations- like way whom they meet, what situations they get into, what happens next, etc. Whether they will fall into a garden of roses or a war zone, nobody knows. However, if you create an atmosphere of love, meditativeness, openness, empathy, and honesty, at least you can stay clear to your own self that you did your best and that is all you can do as a conscious parent.