Thoughtful Parenting and How?

As a blogger, writer, full time mommy and part time entrepreneur, there is very little time that is actually left to think and ponder over things around me!

Seldom, I do things that make me ponder and also serve as an inspiration to write a new blog. In my previous blogs I have often talked about how life is your biggest teacher and how we always need to remove time for our loved ones. How we are so controlled by the social media giants that we seldom forget our social responsibilities! Our life is full of too many hows,whys and ifs but very less ‘can be done’ or ‘should be done’ .

I often talk about parenting, it’s blessings and a few woes! I have been reading a lot about gentle parenting, equal parenting etc. However, have we ever wondered that all that a child needs is,thoughtful parenting. A parent to give thought, ideas and directions to a child’s imagination.

Here are few things that we often try with our overly active toddler, who doesn’t colour within lines (which is fine  because sooner or later he will be asked to think out of the box so why put him in boundaries now).He sometimes forgets to pick up his scattered things , likes play more than studies and who drives his parents over the hill often.

These things that we do with him/for him may not always be right but we know that it’s making him thoughtful of everything he does which is enough for him to be a good human!

Over the course of motherhood,I say it’s a course because I am learning too, here are few things we practice;

Respect Everyone – We try and talk politely to everyone, be it our house maid who we ask for water, lunch and tea every day, the watchman who wish every day. Every time we visit a mall or a restaurant we ask the attendant to serve us with a ”please and say ‘thank you’, in return.

Community Helpers – The best thing a school does is open multiple possibilities for your child. We often expect the school to fulfil our part of the accountability as well but isn’t the home supposed be the child’s first school. So now whenever we travel in a bus or visit the paediatrician, whether we go buy groceries or receive a courier, we talk about community helpers and their roles in our everyday life.

Balance – Similar to how our mind and body need to strike a balance to stay healthy, we encourage and help our little Z to balance study and play. A recent video by a famous nutritionist that is doing rounds on social media also lays stress on how a child needs to get 90 minutes of physical activity each day.

Food and its importance. Yes, as mums we stress over food day in and day out. We sometimes are willing to feed our children anything on the pretext of making their stomachs full. Let your child build taste for a certain food, introduce foods gradually, insist they take a few bites from whatever is served to them. We all love fancy presentations and so do kids, there is a lot of stuff you can do with food. I posted a few pics on my Instagram account

See link food ideas

Don’t Lead by Example Instead set the example together. As much as I appreciate self -play technique for kids, it’s equally important to play with kids or show them how to do a certain thing couple of times before we ask them to do it on their own.Kids replicate our behavior, its important that its our best behavior.

Be their friend – It’s important to play our parental duties, however its equally important to be their friend, help them express their emotions, help them explore and even help them break some rules someday.

Don’t give them everything –  I always believe the sooner we get everything we want, we loose it value. As much as we love our children to have everything, it’s always a good idea for them to have one thing at a time. Too much of everything will lose it’s value.For example, when my son wanted football sneakers of a hi-fi brand, we insisted he earned those shoes by being regular at football practice.We gave examples of how his favorite football players get things after tons of practice.

Each parent has a journey of their own, not every child or every parent is blessed with good health or good wealth. The best gift we can give fellow parents is, not being judgmental.Yes share advises but only when asked. Share love and knowledge instead.

As I said in this blog Memoirs from Parenthood, children often replicate our behavior. Before they develop a habit that you would want to change, change the habit in you!!

Children come into this world because god made us their pathway to the world, it’s unfair to expect them to be perfect at everything.

If you need more ideas that can help you with parenting, please DM me.

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Musingsoftheheartandsoul