Photo Illustration

I remember years ago growing up we were taught, and we were instructed from our parents, what to do, how to respect elders, to be considerate to others and to care for the less fortunate etc.

Bringing a child into this world is a responsibility and it is up to us parents to make sure those children grow up to follow certain rules, need to be instructed by us and to make sure we teach them what to expect from life and what others expect from them. Teach them words of wisdom … if we don’t, nobody else would.

Dedication: It’s a big word with many meanings and it means a key to success and the quality of being dedicated or committed to a task or purpose. Also dedication means devote, concentrate. And it means for children in school to be dedicated academically and not to go to school to be sociable, you go to school to learn to respect and to be polite.

Priorities unfortunately have changed through the years, the same time society changed. I know we are from the old school and I’m sure our children think we’re old timers with old ideas but I think our ideas are much better than theirs. Kids nowadays have other interests,and for many the word dedication, it might not be in either vocabulary, but that’s when our part of parenthood needs to emphasise and to teach them the difference.

Respect: That is another big word and it means a feeling of deep admiration for something or someone, and to make it much easier for our children, respect people, respect teachers, respect elders, respect everyone.

Appreciate: To recognise the full worth of a person and to be grateful for something. When we see an improvement in our children’s education, when we see kindness in them, when we see thoughtfulness in them, we need to tell them how much we appreciate them, and how important it is.

Extra words kids nowadays need to know and express interest are to show concern for others (everyone is not as fortunate as we are), to sympathise and care for others.

Do we want our kids to be good citizens? Of course we do…. and are we willing to teach them or let them go with the flow? I personally think we should take the time to teach them and let them know the importance he or she will make in life.

Compassion: express interest and show compassion to your friends and family, be supportive, pay attention, and concern.

Kindness: The world needs more kindness for sure and you can express kindness in different ways by saying something nice to someone to make them feel good, to help them in something small or big, or just take the time to listen to a child or elder, you will be surprised. “That is for sure an act of kindness.”

Children need guidance:

Advise them about resolving a problem or if they have difficulty in something.

Remember the days when you were young how important it was to have an adult such as a parent, grandparent, teacher, to support you and to give you advice. Also try if possible not to be critical about it but be sympathetic, understanding and for sure protective without letting them know so they don’t think we always keep an eye on them.

Most importantly, we need to use psychology on them, so those words of wisdom are important to put them in our vocabulary first before we teach our children. Love our children at all times we brought them to this world and it’s up to us to protect them, love them and care for them!

Let them know that life is beautiful!

The sun will come out tomorrow!

And you will love them unconditionally no matter what!

Oh, how I wish my grandchildren were babies again, to play on the floor with their toys, to read them stories and to sing with them and have pretend tea parties and use hot chocolate instead and give them an extra little spoon of sugar when their mother wasn’t around (LOL, they loved it) and show them how to hold the teacup, how to set a table, what side of the plate the fork and the knife goes?

How to fold towels and put a chair by the sink to wash dishes with me. They loved for me to go to their homes to babysit and I remember telling their mothers “Mommy take your time don’t be in a hurry to come back I like to play house with Yiayia (grandma).” Ahh I forgot… I loved when they put makeup on me and I looked like an exotic lady from another planet but I told them that It looked awesome .

Great memories! Great times! Great years that they never come back!

Till next month.