Important lessons every parent should teach their child

The world out there is a scary and harsh place. While as parent, you may protect your child from the outside world, at one point they will need to go out there and confront the world and its people. Good things will happen to them, so will bad things. Your job as a parent is to teach your children values, which will guide them in problem solving and decision making. It is often said that, it is survival of the fittest out there, but to truly survive, your child needs the following qualities and traits:

1. Resilience – The young ones are not as resilient as the older generations. They break down, when the cookie crumbles. Resilience is the ability to quickly from any difficulties or toughness. You can build your child’s character by assuring them that when things fall apart, they must not crack but pick up the pieces bit by bit. In this way when they are confronted by a tough situation, they will face it head on, instead of running from their problems.
2. Problem-solving – This is another trait that goes hand in hand with resilience – but how do we teach this? Experts insist through daily household chores, helping mom or dad with younger siblings, through family times, teamwork and togetherness. We need to impart more of ‘how can you do this?’ or ‘how can we do this together?’, rather than ‘how can I do this for you?’. We help our little ones by showing them how they can do certain things for themselves and thus build healthy independence.
3. Strength –We are constantly hearing notions about how “you need to strong.” It is as if you need to have an answer to everything. But strength is the ability to admit that you need help. Children need to be taught that it’s okay to ask for direction and that, it is fine to do things by themselves- only if they can.
4. Emotional intelligence – defined by Oxford as the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions. So crucial, and yet so tricky as it is mostly modelled through our own behaviour as adults – if we’re reactive, they’re likely to be too. We may not get it right every time, in fact, we won’t, but we too learn from our mistakes and so they learn too.
5. Creativity – It is not a trait associated with weakness as a society may have us think. It is a trait that we are all innately born with. It’s our human design, so how do we foster this? Through play, play and play, sensory play, imaginary play, books, stories, baking, cooking, helping with meal prep, keeping toys simple and allowing them the freedom to explore… the list is infinite. When we facilitate and build healthy creative minds, we are in essence building an appreciation for their own design.
6. Respect – This includes respect for themselves – knowing their limits, learning how to set boundaries as children, for example, when they may need time alone. Receiving respect from us as adults, knowing that their No! means No! and knowing our No! means No!