PARENTING THE RIGHT WAY - Nelda Chioma Okafor

Parenting is one herculean but rewarding jobs in the history of mankind. For good and effective parenting to be recorded,both parents MUST be intentional and commit to raising their Godgiven children the right way. Many are oblivious of the fact that parenting starts the moment a child is conceived. it's at this stage or even before that parental goals are set. Couples get to decide the type of family they wish to raise. Responsible parents understand that they are a keyinstrument to how the society turns out as the society is populted by themselvesand their children who later grow into adults that form part of the leadership of the larger society. Parenting is the holistic approach of murturing and caring for a newborn to adulthood. This entails commiting one's mental,physical, spiritual resources towards providing the basic needs of the childlike shelter, clothing, food to guiding them through the early stage of babysteps, word/sound formation,learning to eat,praying, greeting etc. Children are great observers and learn faster this way. There is no truer saying that parents are their children's first teachers. The first things learned and exhibited by children are what they saw and learnt fromtheir parents. Parents MUST therefore be wary of conducting themselves badly before their children. Good parents intending to raise good children must start early to inculate great values in their children even before they start talking. Take for instance, parents of strong christian background must ensure their children are taught to pray immediately they wake in the morning from night sleep then proceed to greet their parents and anyone else living in the house. Teach them simple courtesy of saying 'thank you' each time a favour is done to them. Most importantly, ensure they not only say "sorry", but express it each time they did wrong to anyone. These form part of their lives, shapes them to be grateful and humble while the absence of these in children only see themturn out as ungrateful and arrogant. Most importantly, parents must do all within their powers to be truthful to their children and teach never to tell lies nomatter the circumstance.This builds trust and confidenceand strengthens the bond that exists between children and their parents. Parenting never stops, rather, strategies change as the children grow older. In my next article on parenting, I will dwell much on age appropriate strategies to good parenting.