Better Parenting - Punita Chouhan

“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.”

Being a parent is tough. Most of us feel like we could do better jobs, but resolving to be more patient rarely works. When children are growing up, positive parenting improves their cognitive, social and problem-solving skills. Positive parenting also affects their responses and helps them grow up to be better humans.

The first step to being a better parent is actually how we treat ourselves, we can only give what we have.  The first and foremost responsibility is mindfulness. Mindfulness means that it brings your conscious attention to our experiences. Awareness allows you to choose your response to what’s happening. We can regulate our emotions by being mindful.

It necessitates considerable parental attention and participation, letting children know you are watching their behaviour, raising the bar in terms of expectations as appropriate, and making clear and fair rules for the children.

“Sacrifice our day so that our children can have a better tomorrow.” A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

Courtesy: yourquote.in & familyshare.com

Punita Chouhan, The Fabindia School <pch@fabindiaschools.in>

Hope and Friendship - Kusum Sharma

Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on positive outcomes. Hopeful people believe that they can influence their goal. Hope and Friendship values are very much connected to each other. True Friendship is when someone knows you better than yourself and takes a position in your best interests in a crisis.

I remembered one incident in the classroom where I saw a real example of hope and Friendship. Sneha was a very brilliant student in her class and even excellent in all other activities also. Observed that from a few weeks she was not able to concentrate on her studies and always refused to take part in other events. I wanted to know the reason for this.

I called and asked her about her negligence of work, but she was not interested to share her problem. Next day her very close friend Reena came to me and disclosed that she was very tense due to her parents' separation and divorce.

I observed Reena was very helpful and caring for her and always tried to help her in every small thing. She motivated her to take part in games and other activities and also get her ready to talk to me for her problem. I even started playing extra attention towards her, now she was very friendly with me. We both tried our best to overcome her through that tough time. I was wondering if the support of her friend brought new hope for her. Now again she is doing best in academics and athletics as well.

Kusum Sharma

The Fabindia School

ksa@fabindiaschools.in