KEEPING THE PRESSURE AWAY AND STAYING EMOTIONALLY POSITIVE IN YOUR PARENTING JOURNEY

Being a parent is no simple job. The endless demands parents are faced with, in fulfilling the needs of our children can be very draining physically and mentally, the last thing any parent need is to emotionally suffer in their parenting journey; a journey we are all suppose to enjoy and embrace.

In the parenting talks I conduct, I always remind parents about the effects of PARENTAL PEER PRESSURE. You must be wondering what is this parental peer pressure. We used to hear children and teenagers having difficulty with peer pressure, but what has this peer pressure got to do with parents?

"Adam scored 5As", "Yeay! My darling daughter just completed her 6th stage in  her reading programme and she's only 4 years old", "Ani's latest gadget (a caption for a picture)". Isn't these familiar? Parents are constantly bombarded with such statement from relatives and friends. These days, it gets worse, because you no longer wait for the family reunion or reunion with friends to experience this dreadful comparisons between their children and your children, thanks to technology, you get updates every second, even those you wish you didn't see or read!

So just how do you ensure that you stay strong and positive about your own children despite the constant updates? The most important thing to remember is that every child is unique. Every child has his own strengths and weaknesses. It is our knowledge of our children's strengths and weaknesses that will guide us through  those times when you sometimes go "wow" at others' children and start wondering whether your children are fine or otherwise.  Whenever you read or observe something that effects you, makes you feel down, quickly recall the wonderful things your children have mastered and achieve. Each of our children has their own unique abilities and interests, if only we take time to see and appreciate their uniqueness, we surely can spare ourselves from feeling disturbed by the achievement of others. We need to learn to embrace and celebrate each child's uniqueness and abilities.

There is this concept of multiple intelligence which I will write about soon to help parents understand that not every child is strong academically. Some may strengths in the creative field. Some may have strengths in the technical field and so many more. Our ability to accept this fact will also help us in feeling good about our children. What ever strengths our children have, they can succeed when we ourselves have successfully acknowledge those strengths and give them a chance to grow and bloom with those strengths. I pray and hope that all parents out there stay focused on your children's strengths. So go out and embrace your children's uniqueness!