Let me start with the most important aspect of raising your children and of life itself.. LOVE! I know it is a cliche word, but it is IT. Of course love, as it is beautifully sung in a "Massive Attack" song called "Teardrop", " is a verb, it is a doing word".
I heard of a rather cruel experiment where they put baby monkeys in a cage together with, in the one cage a fake mother or a stuffed monkey who did not respond, and in the other cage a real, live mother, who did respond to the baby monkey's needs. Both the baby monkeys were given food to eat and water to drink. The monkey that had the 'fake mother' died. Even though this is a cruel experiment, it illustrates wonderfully that love, is the most basic 'food', we need it to survive!
Well, I am sure everyone agrees with me so far no? ;-)
I would be happy to hear from all of you who read this, just as a fun exercise, how does love translate into actions in relationship to your children?
Well, I don't have children myself but I have friends that have children and I find that by giving them attention and energy is a way that they can feel love. Being happy with them.
ReplyDeleteYes! Attention, energy and happiness are great ways to help children feel loved!
ReplyDeleteChildren are more naturally drawn to happiness than adults and when they forget to be happy, it takes a lot less time and energy for them to remember again.
It is, however, a little bit more difficult for parents because even though they have a good feeling sense of unconditional love for their children, children are not the easiest people to live with! Guiding and teaching them on a day to day basis can take everything out of you, so parents are not always able to live up to their best intentions. I will describe some concrete ways to help that in a later post.