Five Ways You Can Help Children To Grow Up Into Better Human Beings

Five ways we can help the children grow up into better human beings 

1. Build their trust: When a child smiles at you, smile back. No matter how your day is going. Maybe you are running late for work, or have missed the bus, or your boss is mad at you for submitting a work file too late. Maybe you have flunked a test, or have just broken up with the love of your life. But if a child smiles at you, smile. Children are innocent and often see the world as a compassionate place where what you give is what you get. Do not let them down. Let them believe that kindness exists. Do not shatter their expectations. Let them grow up knowing that the easiest way to make a friend is to smile.
2. Introduce them to the magic of reading: Read out a story to a child, preferably one every week, with full animated gestures et al give flight to his imagination. Introduce him to the art of reading and storytelling. You can read out to an adult too if you like. You’d be surprised how much they enjoy it.
3. Teach them the importance of art – Contribute to the world of art. Even the smallest of contributions make a huge difference—-Spend time sketching. Do a doodle. Paint a picture. Write a poem. Make your own music. Spin a story. Even if you don’t have an audience, create.  For yourself. And for your kid who is constantly watching and emulating you.
4. Break a taboo – this is a social change you can start at home. We have age-old customs around everything. Replace them with stories of feminism and gender equality. Speak to your children openly on topics of menstruation and sex. Buy them games and clothes that are gender-neutral. Hand then equal responsibility when it comes to household chores. We have enough male chauvinists in our patriarchal society. Make sure you are not raising one.
5. Tell them it is fine. That it is fine to lose a game, fail a test, or make mistakes…if it ends up teaching you something in return. Teach them it is fine to feel different from the rest of the world as long as they lend a patient ear to those who ‘feel’ different too. Teach them that the colour of your skin, the labels on your clothes, the money in your wallet, do not matter. What matters is the strength of your character the fact that we all need the same things to keep us alive; blood in our veins, the air in our lungs, and compassion in our heart.

“Old men can make war. But it is only children who will make history.”– Ray Meritt.