Nurturing a Happy child..

As a mother, one of my greatest wishes and desires is to raise a happy, well balanced, kind hearted, love filled and secured child. Regardless of where I am, or who I am, or the circumstances surrounding me/us I believe that these aspirations are achievable as these are genuine desires of a mother. 

I am no perfect mother and I can honestly say that I will forever be a work in progress, as a mother, as a wife, as a daughter, sister, friend, professional, person until my last breath.  But this strong desire to continuosly improve and aspire to be better, to upgrade as a person are the very same values that will equip me to raise a loving, happy, kind and secured child. 

This blogpost springs from my heart as a mother.  I can honestly say that I am raising a happy, love filled, confident and secured child by consistently doing the following: 

1.  Being a present parent:  My husband and I need to work to pay off our bills and to improve our quality of life, but work always comes secondary to the needs of our son.  We do our best to be present in all of the important school activities and in his life.  This includes:  being interested in what our son is imparting/communicating to us, doing routine activities together, paying attention and ensuring that his needs are on the top of our list.  We organize our schedules and our agenda to keep us on our toes on the needs of our son.  

2.  Making time for each other:  We eat together whenever we can.  We make it a point that part of our weekends aside from doing household chores is spent with our son - in the park, museum, library, riding the bicycle.. JUST BEING TOGETHER!!! 

3.  We do routine and new things together such as learning to concoct a new dish, going to the grocery, watching movies and tv programs together, dancing, singing, walking, going to the church and sometimes, just simply sitting on our sofa with our books. We provide mechanisms so that our son can learn new things and eventually build new skills such as cycling, swimming, judo, etc.  

4.  WE TALK A LOT AND LAUGH A LOT TOGETHER.

5.  My son is already 7 years old and I let him make decisions and i let him reason out.  We engage in healthy arguments and we try to persuade each other to "buy" our point of view.  This method increases my son´s self confidence and capability to believe in himself.  

6.  I GO BIGTIME, SHAMELESS hahahaha in expressing my love for him and in praising him for his good deeds.. This is tricky though.  Because in as much as he must believe in himself, he should not be arrogant and he should be respectful of others.  So I always stress the importance of being polite and respecting our individuality.  

7.  I organize playgroups and I get in touch with the parents of his classmates so my son will have a group with whom he can play with.  This boosts his social and interpersonal skills.  

8.  THERE IS NEVER A DAY, NOT A MOMENT THAT I DO NOT LET HIM KNOW THAT I LOVE HIM. BECAUSE I LOVE HIM WITH ALL OF ME.  

9.  I use the carrot and the stick when appropriate.  I reprimand in private and I tell him nicely when he has done something that has disappointed me.  

10.  School definitely is fundamental, primordial, but I do no want him to be grade conscious.  I stress the importance of obtaining a passing mark but more importantly, I focus on the learnings,the lectures the rationale of the subjects.  

Having said of all these, I believe that my son is a happy child and I continue to hope and pray that he will continue to remain a happy, secured, confident, loving and lovable child. :)  

Parenting is not at all a walk in the park. It is like a roller coaster ride with all its ups and downs.  But as the adults, we as parents should always practice patience and continue to demonstrate love and affection to our children in its highest form. 

I thank God for giving me this opportunity to become a mom to my son and I continue to hope and pray that I will do good as a mom. So help me God!! 

Thanks for reading!!! 

***not my photos lifted from the internet.