How to Raise Children to Have the Mental Strength Required to Handle the increasingly Complicated World.
Raising childing in this technologically advanced era is the most challenging task that parents have today. Development in technology has made the world a global village, exposing children to a lot of information. It is therefore very important to develop strategies that will help you as a parent to raise your children to have the necessary mental strength to help them face the ever-increasing challenges of the world today.
It is important to note that children always watch what their parents do. They see how you handle complicated situations and try to copy the same. They watch how you treat others and how you deal with your feelings. Even if you don’t think they pay attention, they absorb all the information.
Picture the mind of a child as a dry sponge; it will absorb everything since it has space. It is like an empty computer hard drive that is waiting to be filled with information. What you feed into the hard drive will determine the output you get.
Children will imitate what they see their parents doing from a very young age. Therefore, what you do and how you handle situations in front of your children should be the first step into teaching your children how to face life in the future. This is an innate behavior of human beings.
Children will imitate gestures and facial expressions from a very young age. Unfortunately, if you do something wrong, your kid will imitate that behavior even if s/he is told it is not good.
Strategies to help your child develop the mental strength
Besides acting in a manner that you would wish your children to imitate, here are some important things to do to help your child to develop the mental strength necessary to face the grim future:
- Teach your child how to distinguish right and wrong and walk them into the process of deciding which direction to take and sticking with their decision no matter how hard it is.
- Deliberately choose the right environment to raise your kids – your kids will not be with you 24 hours a day, particularly as they grow older. Make sure your kids are surrounded by positive role models.
- Share stories about your past and how you managed difficult situations. This will help your children to learn from their No. 1 role model – Parents.
- At a very tender age, teach your children how to manage stress and control their emotions. Emotional Intelligence (EI) should be inculcated in your kids at a young age. This should be taught hand in hand with Intellectual Quotient (IQ). A balance of these two will help your kids make informed decisions. If your children have strong negative emotions, they can not be considerate of others.
It is important to note that children are not born with an understanding of how to control their emotions. It is your duty as a parent to teach them how to use deep breathing, counting down distractions, and other simple techniques to relax and have a clear mind when making critical decisions that will impact their future.