Your Child Is Watching

As parents and carers we learn very quickly that you can’t hide anything from a toddler’s attention. They don’t miss a thing! It proves that they are constantly switched on…ready to go…they are always listening.

That leaves us adults needing to be very aware of how powerful our behaviour is; specifically:

• our own language
• our own actions and
• our own reactions.

And there would not be one of us who has not been caught out once / many times before.

To not be overwhelmed by this however is just to rationalise our approach to parenting. Choose behaviours, responses and make decisions within a context of values you have agreed upon as the parent/s or carer/s. And the fundamental thing … to model these behaviours with consistency and fairness, with open communication and respect. A child will learn foremost form us the parents and then their environment. We are very keen these days to claim a child responsible for their own behaviour but let’s not forget that many behaviours are not innate, they are learned and nurtured for the significant people around them.

It may be a very difficult task at times and we all know there are many and varied challenges but stick to the path and the rewards will grow with your child.