Prime
Every difficulty is a teachable moment
Min Atek
What you need to know:
Is it not amazing how this scene is repeated in the lives of many children and their parents, especially in our day? Oh, how we love to shield and protect our children! How we love to make everything easy for them
The child got off the ground and attempted to walk but fell down immediately. In a bid to help him, his mother carried him up and put him on her lap. After a while, he wanted to go down again. “You will fall down baby and you will get hurt,” she told him lovingly, but being who he was, he protested.
Is it not amazing how this scene is repeated in the lives of many children and their parents, especially in our day? Oh, how we love to shield and protect our children! How we love to make everything easy for them.
The truth is, unless that baby is allowed to walk while falling down and getting up, their growth will be retarded. Recently I was watching a clip where an older parent asked the parents to allow their children to struggle.
She was quick to add that whereas we are tasked to protect them from harm, in so doing, we should not shield them from challenges, but rather equip them to handle, manage and get through these challenges.
She encouraged parents to shift their mindset to understand that challenges are training sessions for the child’s mental, emotional and social capabilities. Every difficulty that a child faces, is a teachable moment to help them cope and build resilience.
Parent should not take away hardships from a child, but rather walk alongside with them, supporting them, while they are struggling, so that they are not in it alone yet they are still walking their own path.
What a powerful truth! We are all wired with the inner ability to cope with different situations, but unless we are taught and allowed to look within, we will not know how to tap into that potential.
Friction builds us. When we are thrown into the deep end of life, we are challenged to quickly learn how to swim our way out. That challenge builds our inner muscle.
Oftentimes, I watch on as my children make mistakes. Severally, I say no to their requests and task them to think them through. They do not like that. That is for sure. Sometimes I also feel sad about denying them certain priviliges. I am sure they would not believe that. But I do.
Pushing them into spaces of growth for the thickening of their skins is very critical. It is pleasant to be around an individual, who seeks to offer solutions than one who only seeks answers.
We love our children, granted, but may we nurture them into individuals of substance, responsibility and agents of change. May it never be said that our love and good will crippled them.
