What your children may need from you - Infant Diaries

This is the first part of the series of posts 'What your Children may need from you.' This part is focused on infants up to the age of 5 years old.

This post is for all the parents, especially Indians, out there with one child at the very least. Also, I am no parent an I am writing this post from the perspective of a child. I would refer to a child as she to neutralize the male dominance in the society, at least as much as I can.

From the moment a child enters the world, the first thing she gets to know is Mother, for those who don't, I really wish you could. For a child, her mother is the anchor in a sea of unknown faces. If she is insecure, she would cry and we all know that her mother can bring her security. Food, sanitation or any other problem an infant may have, mother is the one she would call for. So what all would your child require of you?
Let's take it step-by-step:

1. Your attention - Yes, your child would require your attention. She is very young, not familiar of the dangers of the world. She would need you to save her sometimes from herself and most of the times from other things or people. Be aware, both mother and father, that you own a priceless gift in need of utmost care.

2. Freedom to learn - Now, we all know that a child is very curious to learn about all the things. You would have to let her learn, sometimes by words and some other times by experience. Do not stop her, let her explore. Tell her what is wrong and what is right and how a certain thing works and let her do it on her own. Let her enjoy her curiosity so that she would.know when to use certain thing or would be aware of the dangers it poses.

3. Give her options - This is the most important thing that you would need to work on, specially fathers. Believe in your child. She has the capability to do wonders. Do not force her to do what you want her to do. Let her choose her own pace and way of learning things. She is starting to know, learn and do things on her own. Give her options, a lot of options and closely observe her behaviour with all those. This will help you understand her inclination for future.

4. Give her preference - She is your girl, you have give her preference above all else. Sometimes, and this mostly happens in India, when a guest comes to your house with a kid of the same age you tend to give their child more attention. Understand that this behaviour of yours, if continued every time a child visits, may build up a confidence issue in your child in the long run. Be careful of how you show yourself in front of her.

5. Do not impose - You may have dreamt of making your girl a doctor, an engineer or may have chosen a career for her already but know this that she is very young to uphold your dreams for now. Teach her everything, and let her learn and grow. Love her but do not impose your learning methods or other things so soon. She must enjoy her childhood, she is not go I.g to be so for long.

6. Make her trust you - She knows only you, she has been born not too long ago and she trusts everything you do for her. You have to keep her trust and for that you have to believe her. She would tell you all the things that she thinks, she does or may want to do. Do not and I repeat, do not scold her for her first mistakes. Tell her what is right and how to do it. If you scold her all the time, you may scare her and this would lead to her hiding things from you or start telling lies. Now you wouldn't that, would you?

There are many other minor points that you would have to take care of but those are circumstantial. We will be discussing this topic again. Next time for kids from 6 years to 10 years age. If you think I have missed something, please tell me in your comments below. Look out for my other post in the series. Till then, happy parenting.