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This article is from Today's
Native Father, issue #128, July/August, 2003. Related articles from this issue: |
Helping Your Child Feel Important |
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Raising children can be fun and rewarding. It can also be difficult and disappointing. Sometimes children are cute and funny. They just make you want to love them. Other times they test your patience to the limit. But through it all, we must never lose sight of the worth of each child. One of the best things parents can do for their children is to help them realize their personal worth. Here are six ways this can be done. 1. Show love by touching. Studies show the importance of children being hugged and touched by their parents. When they are not touched, physical problems can develop. Good, helpful touching for children is being held on their parent’s lap, hugging and kissing or holding hands. There can also be a wrong kind of touching between parents and children which has to do with sex. 2. Tender treatment. Being treated gently and tenderly is very important to a child. Anger and harsh words can make him feel that he is no good. When a child is treated roughly by adults, he begins to think, “If I was important, they would not be so mean to me.” 3. Listen to what they say. Give a child your total attention when he is telling you something which he thinks is important. Look into the eyes of a child when he is talking to you. Don’t laugh at what he says, if he is serious. Don’t make fun of what he tells you. This lowers a child’s feeling of worth and he will no longer want to share with you. 4. Say, “You are special!” Tell your child, “There’s no one else in the whole, wide world like you. You are special.” Show your child the lines on his thumb. Explain that he is the only person alive with a thumb exactly like that. Let him know that God made him the way he is for a special reason. 5. Do something special when they do well. Celebrate special times such as birthdays and school events. Set time aside to spend alone with each child. Give compliments and praise. Let your child hear you tell someone else about something good that child did. Tell your child, after he does well, “I’m proud of you.” Discover what a child is good at and help him develop in that area. 6. Let them know God loves them. Teach very early in a child’s life about God and heaven. Let him know that God loves him and he is important to God. Read Bible stories. Read stories that contain thoughts about eternal life with God. Help the child to see God as a loving Father. Children are young only once. They cannot start life over again. Make each one feel special, because each one really is important. Adapted from Indian Life, May/June, 1996. Used by permission. |
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