Parenting

               " Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." This famous quote comes from the book of proverbs in the bible and was said by king Solomon between 970 and 930 BC. This is to tell that since the dawn of time, Parenting and how to raise children were highly discussed among the human family. Today this problem is still at the center of the life of everyone and it becomes more than necessary, I will say urgent to find a proper way to teach children good standards so they do not "depart from it". It has now become too common to see many children engaging in bad doings. many factors can be the cause of it and my goal today is to review one of the biggest factors that can reverse drastically this bad trend of children being a problem to society instead of a strength. I am talking about good parenting.

       According to Wikipedia, " Parenting or child rearing promotes and supports the physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood." With this detailed definition, the quote of king Solomon makes more sense to us because full and excellent parenting provide everything a child needs to succeed in all aspect of his life. alongside that, questions come to mind. First, doesn't it seem too perfect and unrealistic to be able to accomplish all that has been cited in the definition? Secondly, is it a one-sided commitment? does not the children have some part to play in this beautiful blessing to take place in their life? we will briefly try to answer these questions for our learning and understanding. 

     From the perspective of the church of Jesus Christ of later days saints, parents have the solemn responsibility to care for their children. In fact, it is more than a responsibility, it is an obligation. The eternal welfare of the parents can be at stake if they fail to accomplish this task.  President Gordon B. Hinckley has stated; " “As parents, we should remember that our lives may be the book from the family library which the children most treasure. Are our examples worthy of emulation? Do we live in such a way that a son or a daughter may say, ‘I want to follow my dad,’ or ‘I want to be like my mother? Unlike the book on the library shelf, the covers of which shield its contents, our lives cannot be closed. Parents, we truly are an open book in the library of learning of our homes.”

     with everything being said let us answer this question: How could parents teach good ways of living?

     Michael Popkins in his book called active parenting shows us some approaches to have when it comes to educating children. we will subcategorize them into three parts. 

the first is to describe the mistaken approach of children. The second and the third respectively are to describe the needs of those children when they have their mistaken approach and the parental approach to have. let us give some examples: 

Mistaken Approach: A child like to control others 

Needs of the child: the parents need to understand that their child needs power over situations. 

Parental approach: they need to provide real and safe opportunities for him to have true experiences wherein he will make choices and will be in control of his environment, where he will be responsible for the consequences of his acts.  

It is clear that Popkin's approach outlines that the capacity of parents to provide a good education for their children lies in the ability to read effectively the needs of their children to better re-direct it in a nice setting where they will exercise how to express those feeling without harming anyone and with the intent of learning how to canalize it to help the world to be better and for themselves to be better.

To conclude, I would like to say that parenting is challenging. the fact of seeing children we loved so dearly go into a world full of wickedness brings anxiety and fear. The question is not to stop them from going into it but to contribute to their preparation because if they are prepared they shall not fear, they will change this world to be a better place to live.