I am sure most of us have heard questions such as “How Well Do You Know Your Child?” and it’s a question all parents must be able to answer. We cannot effectively reach out to children (or anyone, to say the least) if we cannot understand them or place ourselves in their shoes for a moment. Life goes by so fast that we sometimes get caught up with what seems to be the priorities on our minds that we forget about the basics.
As parents (guardians and/or caregivers), we wake up in the morning, get breakfast ready, get the children ready, drive them to school and get on with our own work. Then it’s time to pick the children up from school, ask about their day, have diner, help out with their homework and get them ready for bed. We wake up in the morning and do the same thing over and over again.
Those things create a bond between the child and the parent (priceless). As much as we enjoy doing these things for our children and while we adjust/embrace these changes, are we really paying attention to the most important details in their lives? Are we listening to them, understanding what they are saying and responding appropriately? Or are we simply ‘going with the flow’ like some would say? I am sure you’ve all heard the saying and hopefully read the Poem by Dorothy Law Nolte, Children Live What They Learn. We are our children’s heroes from the start and they mimic our every move even though we don’t seem to notice it. If someone was to ask you today how well you know your child, can you say for sure that you will represent your child well? Click here for a fun survey and share the results with your child to see how well you did.
How about your child? How Well Does Your Child Know You? This question is as important as the first one (how well do you know your child?). How do you project yourself to your children? How do you nurture them? What do they think of you? Is their perception of you accurate? As parents we are more concern about our children’s well-being that we forget to share a little bit about ourselves with them. Living under the same roof does not mean that they know and/or understand us and what we do. We have to share some information which may come handy in time (in extreme cases for instance, being able to identify us just by simple, yet detailed questions). Our children may not answer all questions about us accurately, but they should not be guessing when we can educate them and we should not be guessing either and start asking questions.
One of the activities of the month of May in my Son’s class was a description/presentation about their Mothers. Sometimes we think such little details are not so important for our children to know, but they really are and my boy made me proud today. As you can see on the document above, he remembered everything except my age.
“Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.”― George Bernard Shaw
So, my dear readers, on a scale of 1 to 10, how well would you say your child (or children) know you? How well do you know them? I’d love to hear back from you.
By JM Perez
