Editor’s Note: We need to teach our children about life and be there for them always so that they can face it all with a smile. Our IL member Viswamitra shares some thoughts on how a parent influences the child. Share yours with us here. 

Good Education

Many of us have worked hard to make sure our children are well educated and successful in their lives. The sacrifice the parents do to give education to their children is impeccable. Every parent thinks that his or her child should not struggle in life as much he or she did and hence make all possible efforts to educate his/her children at the cost of compromising even some of the needs in his/her life.

We have seen single mothers raising their children by working hard to provide valuable education. But the parents who really succeed ar those who do not forget about their own childhood. And then strive to give their children what they couldn’t have.

Work Hard

Since the children become the purpose of lives for most parents, they tend to be so liberal in their spending for them. When we do something like that, knowingly or unknowingly, the parents are interfering with their growth. We, the parents, have worked hard and achieved success. But when we give our children whatever they want very easily we are depriving them the opportunity to learn that important lesson in their lives.

In fact, one of the most precious gifts the parents could give to them is teaching them how to work hard and become successful just like the way they did it in their lives. That is true contribution from the parents for the welfare of their children.

Set the Right Example

The children always try to emulate parents and we need to make use of that opportunity well.

The best education for our children is from what they observe throughout the day. If the parents have giving nature, the children turn out to be giving in nature and if the parents are nice to everyone, they tend to be nice to everyone. Whether it is giving time or money for the people in need, it is important they learn to give. When they develop that attitude, they learn to consider everyone equal. They understand every life is valuable and stop discriminating people based on their education, wealth, color, age, sex, etc.

When we have young children, our life is like walking on the tight rope. We need to have a stick in our hand called character. If we don’t have it, we not only lose balance, slip and fall but also let our children observe our actions.

Even if we make a mistake, we better repent for it and do corrective action in full view of the children. They learn a lesson that mistake is human but repenting and learning to correct them is important.

Train Them to Face Life

To the extent possible, we need to allow them to make informed decision but we need to keep an eye on them so that they don’t take a wrong direction.

We need to train them to understand the importance of earning, possessing and preserving wealth. Wherever possible, we need to allow them to earn and train them to pay some or all of their expenses. We have to educate them to budget for their expenses and teach them the discipline of how to pay the debts and bills without any delay. We have to train them to build good credit history. 

When we teach family values and character building, we also need to teach not to waste food, money, energy and time. A child that is trained not to waste time learns to plan and utilize their time well. A child that does not waste food learns that there are many in the world that they don’t even get to eat one meal a day. Conservation of energy is not only natural energy but also energy that is generated from the body.

A child that is raised with such qualities also learns to appreciate the sufferings in the world and tend to contribute some of their earnings for the welfare of the needy.