Page 46 - Waterfall Issue 9 2021

Waterfall Today’s Child

RAising

CHiLdREn

FoR THE

unknoWn

FuTuRE

By Nicoleen Davies, Director of Business Development, Life Talk

We all want our children to be happy,

secure, fulfilled and able to cope with

what life throws at them. So, how do

we set that foundation?

s omething that I have often Being aware of this in your daily it takes, how to work independently,

interactions will be crucial to their
pondered is – how do you
and it teaches them the importance
raise children for the unknown,
for a world that doesn’t development. If they see you lose of responsibility. It may also
teach them negotiation skills!
your temper easily, or shout at people
exist yet, for a life of complexity, when things go wrong, or give up at • Encourage curiosity. Free time
of constant and rapid change? the first hurdle, or don’t appreciate used for self-exploration will
things or people, or have a poor create the space for your child
The key skills they would probably work ethic – so will they. Fact. to cultivate creative thoughts
need are resilience and adaptability and actions. verbally reward
but, in addition, psychologists have suCCEssFuL your child for striving for new
identified several factors that may PAREnTing – WHAT THE experiences and encourage them
ensure success. We have nothing PRoFEssionALs sAy to turn curiosity into action
else to work with other than what Studies indicate that successful • Teach social skills. A study conducted
current studies and theories predict, adults had the following common over 20 years showed that socially
so this is what the experts suggest. grounding as children, and some of competent children who, without
these are surprisingly simple things: prompting could cooperate with
WE ARE ouR CHiLdREn’s • Raise your children with a ‘can do’ their peers and were helpful towards
RoLE ModELs versus a ‘can’t do’ attitude. This others, had greater empathy and
Parenting has a direct influence on will encourage them to become were better able to resolve problems
developing a child’s capabilities. self-starters and action oriented. on their own. They were more likely
We all know how important it is to • Let your children do chores. If to complete a university degree
spend time with our children and they don’t do them, someone else and have a full-time job by the age
that they learn how to behave by has too. Chores reinforce that work of 25 than those with limited social
observing the adults in their lives. needs to be done and, in so doing, skills. Conversely, limited social skills
It is irrefutable that you will have a each of us contributes. This helps present a higher risk of reckless
major impact on how your children develop collaboration skills and behaviour, resulting in binge drinking,
conduct themselves in adulthood. empathy – because they know what or using drugs and being arrested.

44 Waterfall Issue 9 2021