I’m sure many parents out there had wished that each of our kids come with an instruction manual. None of us attended school that prepared us for parenting. We attended school, rather, to master at least one language, general Mathematics, basic Sciences, appreciate fine arts, etc.
The day Yang and I became parents, we discovered that we were thrown into the deep end with the overwhelming dawning reality that it would be a 24/7 commitment and responsibility for the rest of our lives – well, almost. We found out that the going would be especially tough during the early years if new parents don’t get support from their parents / in-laws / care-givers / maids / etc. Sleep, for the first time, becomes a luxury – any parent would tell you. Missing a meal or two in a day is not uncommon for full-time, unaided mothers in the baby’s first year of life.
So, when our infant became a toddler and start to ‘misbehave’, our first reaction was to employ parenting methods that we were brought up and familiar with. Broadly speaking, we could classify the methods as ‘soft’ or ‘hard’ approach. Soft or hard sell does curb the undesirable behaviour now and then but sometimes I wonder whether we could be doing our child a disservice in her development as a person in the long run. Thank God that the world today has opened up to meet the needs of clueless parents in so many aspects ranging from topics such as breastfeeding to threading the minefield on discipline. Yang just borrowed some library books on parenting for us and I’m currently reading one of them in hope to distill some educated and researched approach towards parenting our girl.
For the next few months to come, I shall blog about my gleamings of a parenting book entitled ‘Positive Discipline for Preschoolers’. In this way, I hope to discipline myself to make a conscious effort to remember sound parenting principles and try out new parenting methods that have worked on other ‘misbehaved’ kids and put them on the track to become good and happy human beings. Wish us success. :)
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