Small Things that Can Make Big Difference

Someone once said that life should be understood as a game, but is that always the case? Love is what keeps us going when everything else stops moving. Being a parent is the most demanding role in one’s life and each parent strives to provide their little ones with love and carefree childhood. Not every child is lucky enough to be educated, to have a roof over their head and to sense the warmth of a mom’s gentle hug. It requires a lot of effort and patience to direct your child onto the right path and make them a good person. Exactly how realistic this is in a world where moral values have long been deflated? There are several useful things that should be applied on a daily basis that could make our lives happier as well as the lives of our children.

1. Be a role model

Parents are under a constant observation. Children look up to you from the very young age and not only do they try to imitate you, but they also adopt your behaviour. Make their stare worth a while.

• Content parents make content children
• Don’t fight or curse your spouse in front of your children, as this will later reflect on their own relationships. They need to be raised in a healthy environment, which prevents them from becoming insecure and traumatized at such initial stage
• Be nice to elderly people from the neighbourhood or random people in the streets. Help them with their grocery bags or offer them help with the Saturday jobs. True kindness is the highest form of giving without expecting anything in return.

2. Small acts of kindness

Every day we can contribute and positively affect our own children’s lives, the lives of our friends’ children, children from our community or the ones who need economic help.

• You can support children from economically disadvantaged families through life-changing education foundation scholarships and amazing educational grants. In this way, you will give your child a great example and point out the importance of education.
• Use your children’s worn out clothes and toys and donate to charities. This will teach them that sharing is caring, and it’s a good practice once you give them siblings or when they make new friends.

3. Children have the memory of an elephant

Whether you praise or tell them off, be sure that children remember everything! If you’ve promised your children you would take them to the park or whatever they asked for, and somehow you fail to keep the promise, they will resent it severely.

• Praise as much as you can, for instance, their not so artsy drawings, honour their first attempts to ride a bike, because at the end of the day children will know how to appreciate it
• If your child is being too pushy and excited to share what happened in the kindergarten that day and you find yourself too busy to listen, be careful with that. Tell them to remember their story as you will be more than pleased to hear it later. They need to feel like what they have to say is really important to you and that you are a good listener.
• Never underestimate your child’s abilities. You will be surprised how much they know and are able to do. Boost their self-esteem but don’t exaggerate, you don’t want them becoming too pretentious or conceited later in life

Encourage your children to be good people, because at the end of the day it’s not the material things they will remember, but the love and devotion you gave them.

Author : Claire Adams a personal and professional development expert.