We need to nurture our child with love…but what is the love that we need to provide to our child? Every parent or teacher/caregiver has own definition of loving our child. Love towards a child is a feeling of attachment and connection that we develop in a child. When we love a child, we care about his overall well being. We want the best for him. We give the best for him, unconditionally!
If we do not handle our love and affection towards our child properly, we become possessive and demanding. Some parents love their child so much, that they over protect the child or over control the child. I even heard parents claimed that they own their child - “The child must listen and follow exactly what I want him to be! He is mine! He’s been in my tummy for nine months. I gave birth to him. He’s MINE!”. Can we own a child? We discuss about this in another topic. Is this love? I think the adult loves him/herself more that the child!
In my opinion, love should come together with action. Don’t say how much you love your child, but your action shows differently. That’s the habits of most adults whether you are a parent or teacher/caregiver that I observed :
- I love my son that I give everything he wants like batman car, video games..except that I can’t spend time with him because I’m very busy with my job and businesses.
- I love my daughter so much that I took her to ballet tuition, dancing class, computer class etc. so that she can achieve excellent result and be the most excellent kid in school.
- I love my child, but I seldom talk to her, I don’t know what she thinks and what she wants. However, I provide a home security to her so that she doesn’t need to worry about her food, shelter and money.
- A teacher told everyone that she loves children. However, she roughly shake a child in anger when the child disobeyed her.
- I love my students. However, I don’t need to understand them. If they have personality problems, that’s all their parents’ fault and they have to do something about it.
Children need abundance of love, attention and affection for them to excel in their development. We need to always keep our child’s emotional tank full! If you are a busy parent, spend at least 15 minutes with your child without any interruption. It’s important to actively listen to your child and stay involved in his lives. Get to know what they have gone through and what’s going on in their lives by communicating with the child. Be there for your child when he needs you. We need a lot of sacrifices and be ready to arrange and prioritize our time to nurture our child. Be their friends! Hug your child! Please understand what your child really needs - your attention, love and affection!
How do you feel if someone loves you unconditionally without restricting your freedom? You feel secure and good about yourself. You excel and you perform so well in everything you do! That’s the power of love! What do you think if we can nurture our child with abundance of love?
Loving your child doesn’t mean giving in whatever your child demanded. That is called spoiling your child. Do set some ground rules and limits at home. Balance between love and parenting. Help the child to differentiate what can be done and vice versa. Cultivate positive discipline! Be a democratic parent or caregiver/teacher to your child. You can do it!
Check out how children from age 4 to 8 years old define love : “Love is…“.
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