NURTURING YOUNG MINDS: MY APPROACH TO DISCIPLINE

When it comes to taking disciplinary measures towards the wrong someone has done, sometimes it’s hard to know exactly how to go about it, especially as a parent because most times we let our emotions get the better part of us. I have seen parents disciplining their children in really harsh ways and the question I asked myself at that moment is, are you even a human being? Because, even before we became parents, we were first humans and it is important that as humans we should be able to treat people with kindness and respect.

Unfortunately, some parents have a faulty mindset towards their children and some of them will be like, “I gave birth to you, so I can do anything I want to you”. For me, that is the most scariest thing anyone can say to a person, whether as a parent to a child or even in other scenarios. As you would guess, I’m not a parent yet but I always anticipate for the day I will be one. I always like it when I get an opportunity to write about things relating to parenting because it gives me an idea of the kind of parents I wish to become.

Well, for some parents who gets to read most of my write ups and even some who are not yet parents, they most times tell me that it is easier said than done and agree with them. But then, I also appreciate the fact that some parents also agree with me that it is possible so I will just prefer to focus on the positives. So without further ado, join me as I take you through some ways I think it’s best to correct an individual, especially as a parent to a child.

Children around the age of 2-7 years old from my observations, are mostly prone to doing some things that as a parent if you are not careful, you might even want to kill them. This is mostly because, at this age, these children are beginning to demonstrate the things they’ve been learning, whether good or bad. To them, they are not sure if it is right or wrong yet, but then, because they already saw it somewhere or heard someone saying it, they somehow felt it was okay to do the same. So as a parent, if you miss this opportunity to correct them around this time, just know you will have a lot of regrets.

They call children copy cats, well, that’s basically what they are. So as a parent, before I’d discipline my child, I want to know where they learnt such things from first because only then I can know the best way to safe guard their hearts from such things to happen again. I’m definitely going to use the rod as the Bible advised but then, the rod doesn’t only refer to physical discipline. If we read in the book of Proverbs, you will see how many times King Solomon stressed on the fact that, as children, we should always listen to the instructions of our parents and for me, that goes to tell us how much advising as parents we have to do.

Words are powerful, even more than physical beating and we will notice that with time, it’s as if these children grow immune to our beatings and that is because, all they have to do is do something wrong and prepare their minds for a good beating. This reminds me of the children of Israel, these people had the habit of sinning against God and buying a lamb to sacrifice for their wrongs to be forgiven. It only means that, they are not remorseful of what they’ve done and that is what beating your child always does to them.

For me, like I said, the first thing I want to know is, how did that child learn to do what he or she has done. And next, I want to know if they feel what they did is the right thing or not and why they think so. I also want to correct them after that if they are wrong and acknowledge my wrong if I was part of the reason why they acted that way. And then, I will try my best to always help them to avoid falling prey to such things again by enabling them with the right information because the Bible says, people perish because of lack of knowledge.

There are so many other things I believe I’d do it these few that I mentioned are not effective, but then, these are the must do things I think as a parent I owe my child whenever they do something wrong. I don’t want to ever give them the impression that I don’t care about some things they do because I care about everything and I believe they should know that.

Thank you for stopping by. ❤️