One stop for Parents

Very rarely my niece gets a chance to play games in laptop. That was an evening, and her mom made her noodles as a quick snack.

She allowed us, both the sisters to take our share of 1 teaspoon each from her plate and added her very own tomato ketchup into it. Mixed it thoroughly and took it to the laptop table to play her favourite game.

Seeing this, my sister called me and asked me to check with one line that she learnt in her computer textbook. I didn't know what she meant and as a messenger just went and told my niece.

To my surprise she exclaimed,"Oh God" and took her plate to the dining room and finished her noodles. After that she went and started playing.

A story from ‘Five o’ clock tales’

 It was Mollie’s birthday the next day and he meant to buy her a book. Bob emptied the pennies out of his money box. He had two pounds altogether, so off he went to the bookshop. He saw there a book he wanted very badly for himself - Tales of Brer Rabbit - and he felt Mollie will like the book.

On the day of birthday, Mollie the naughty did some naughty things like pouring milk into teapot, threw a stone to a cat and hurt its leg. Mother got angry and said she is not getting any gift for her birthday. Mother decided to give the gift Bob presented to the milkman’s son.

Milkman’s son received the gift and he opened it. WOW! the same gift he received for Christmas. He decided to hand over the gift to a friend is not well. He ran and gave the gift to his friend. His mother opened the gift and saw what is inside and thought her son can not read any books now. Doctor asked him to give rest for the eyes.

She thought for some time and decided to give the book to Alice who lives with her grandmother. She ran to Alice’s house and kept the gift  near the door and came back.

Alice’s grandmother opened the door and saw the gift. She too opened it and thought ‘Alice is gone to the city to meet her parents. She will take few moths to come back. Let me give this the kind boy who once helped Alice.’

Do you know who the kind boy was? Its our Bob. The next day, he too received a gift pack and was surprised to see the book he wanted to buy for himself.

As human beings, we have the following rights

to make and refuse requests

to express opinions

to be treated fairly

to express annoyances and anger in non-aggressive ways

to give compliments and express affection

Discuss with your child about these and make him/her aware of the need to be an assertive person. Let him/her remember that others too have the  right to be an assertive person.

I think i am not a person to tell you parents what punishment you should give to your children. Each parent is unique and their parenting style too is different. Same with the punishing style too.

Let me tell one thing which we should not do while punishing our children. Let me narrate an incident. It was around 10.30 in the night. I could hear a small child's weeping. I just opened the door to check from where the sound is coming. To my shock, i saw my neighbour's kid is out and weeping. Her door is closed. When inquired, the reply came as "my mommy punished me. She asked me to get out from the house."

Insane isn't it? What all could have happened to the child. What happens when the child decide to  run away? What happens if someone comes and tortures her? Imagine the mental torture the child is going though. Will ever the child trust her own mother?

Dear parents, just one request. Please think well before you give any punishment to your child.

Cheers,

"I am hungry. Let me go home and eat something." And after reaching home, the hand go directly to a biscuit packet/Chips packet. Is it true?

It is the same with adults as well as children. Whenever we go for a picnic too, we prefer to pack a lot of junk food in our bag. And later, when the children grow up, the children as well as parents struggle to reduce the weight of the child. Take gym memberships etc.

Why don't we bring a change now itself ? Store your refrigerator not with junk foods but with salads and fresh vegetables.

Make it a healthy habit to drink vegetable soup and salads whenever we feel hungry.

Today, I attended a training programme, where they taught us how to start a spiritual based daycare/nursery for children from 9 months to 3 year old. The condition is they should be accompanied by their parents.

I was amazed by the findings that was shared in the session. Normally, we make our children say 'ma', 'tata', etc when they are 1 year old. Here, they showed with proof, how children can be trained to choose their favourite song, game etc based on some actions that they pick up in the class.

One learning from the session was, our children can learn anything from the very young age provided if we give them enough exposure to various aspects of life. Not just making them count, say  letters, rhymes etc.

Look at the smile on her face! All of our kids also will be having this kind of smile on their face when they get a mobile/tablet right?

My daughter and my niece are behind me asking to buy them a new tablet. When i say 'No' to them, they ask me back is you don't even have few hundreds of dollars with you to spend for us!!!!

With my android phone, they both sit for hours playing games without knowing what is happening in the outside world.

I wanted them to stop this habit and i started thinking.

Here is the deal - You can use the mobile/tablet only during weekends. Download the game and play it. Maximum half an hour you can play once you take it. In day maximum three times you can play. Sunday night, you should uninstall the game from the instrument.

When i was young, me, my sister and our friends from neighbourhood used to play this game. Make holes in the ground in a particular pattern.

Then each of us will get equal number of marbles. We need to roll the marble to any of the holes. based on the position and where the marble ends, we get points.

I wanted to play this game with my child too. But where is the ground now a days to make holes. Then, i found this activity online. A cardboard is cut to make tunnels and we can roll the marbles. Kudos to the person who found this alternative to this game.

Let me tell you, we enjoyed playing this new version of my childhood game.

Meditation is not only closing your eyes and stopping the thoughts in your mind. Meditation can be done while walking, eating, sitting etc.

Take your child for a 10 minute walk and ask him/her to listen to the different sounds of the nature like the dogs barking, birds chirping, leaves rustling, vehicle honking etc.

Once you are get back, ask him/her to visualise what they experienced and draw a picture about the walk.

Now a days, father, mother and his/ her toys, television and computer are the play mates for our children. Even when we do not have time too we make sure that we spend at least half an hour with our child playing.

During the play, I don't know how many of us noticed and appreciated our children for changing the rule of the game. Sometimes we may get irritated too. Children always tend to change the game to suit his capabilities and interests. Let he/she be creative. Be flexible with your child.

Yesterday i attended a programme, where children from kindergarten to grade 7 were participated.

It was all going good. Suddenly when the programme for the kindergarten students were announced, people from all parts of the hall was in front of the hall to take pictures of their child. They not even blocked the viewers to see the performance of the children but stopped themselves from enjoying the performance of their own child.

Are we obsessed with our children????

How many of us just sit and listens to our child completely without doing any other work? "Not always", "I don't get time at all", "I don't have time to decipher what he/she trying to say", "I will be doing something and listen to him/her" right?

If we give 100% attention to what they are trying to tell us, at least they will listen to 50% of what we say to them!

Here are few points on why hugging our children is important!

1. The nurturing touch of a hug builds trust and a sense of safety. This helps with open and honest communication.

2. Hugs can instantly boost oxytocin levels, which heal feelings of loneliness, isolation, and anger.

3. Hugging boosts self esteem. It gives a feeling that I am loved and I am special.

4. Hug releases tension in the body.

Kids are treated to be as kids. They are not adults. There are many programmes on television which makes kids to be adults.

I am sure that all of us have more than 10 children's books at home. Reading is a fun habit that we need to inculcate in our children. As parents, why don't we start a cute library for our children and their friends at our home. Remember to select a variety of books which stimulates all the intelligences in the children.

When do we say Thank you? Whenever somebody does something to us right? Let us realise that not only when we get something new or do something good we need to say thank you.