Nurturing Your Child's Potential

 

Nurturing Your Child's Potential

© Angel Okenwa

While growing up, we were taught how to demonstrate good manners, be in total obedience to our parents, learn the basic skills and live up to their expectations sometimes without having a mind or opinion of our own and this leads me to ask: 

Is African parenting authoritative or liberal?

Also is it true that African parents don't apologise?

Well, only you can answer that!

I'm not here to judge anybody or any parents. We all know that parents want the best for their children, deep down they love and care for our wellbeing but the actions which they use determine whether they succeed in birthing a healthy loving, caring and confident child or not. Sometimes, on the outside, the child may be what they want but on the inside, it's a different thing- as he or she might be going through emotional crisis,  suffering from the effect of bully, having low self-esteem, fear, doubt and inferiority complex and so on.

Parents always want their children to achieve and be the best that they can which is good but when it becomes too imposing, we may be putting much pressure on our kids and might be causing harm to their self-esteem and confidence. In Susan Stiffelman's book _Parenting with Presence_ , she wrote: 

 _*"Our children know that they are loved for who they are, not for what they can do for us or how their achievements make us look to others"*_ . 

We can still love our children even if they're not what we wanted them to be and this can boost their self love and make them not to desire love outside which I'm sure we won't like that as parents.

In most African countries, there's lower standard of living, this results to financial problems and struggles to meet up with, which brings stress on parents. Sadly how often children are the ones who suffers it more as parents pour their anger and frustration on them. This is the mistake so many parents make; children are not to be blamed when things aren't going well or the economy isn't good, remember when you were praying for a child and they were given to you.

We as parents should be able to still be focused and be that good mentor or role model we are to our children even in the face of storms keeping in mind our purpose is to birth a healthy loving, caring, confident and independent child he or she will be tomorrow.

I'm not saying parents should be perfect but like what _Susan Stiffelman's Parenting with Presence_ would call; *A Conscious loving parent* your child can look up to.

© Angel Okenwa

#Amor#