Accept it or not, every parent is dealing with this question of how to raise your child to be a good person. These days, with both the parents working and the tight schedule that the parent follows every day, it is very difficult to keep a check on your children. A lot of parents are trying their every bit to raise their child in the best possible way and give them the best upbringing, but still kids these days are turning out to be violent and brutal.
Surprised…? Well, yes, it is true, there are many cases streaming on the media and news channels which is hinting where the next generation will head, if not controlled at the right time.
There are many children who like to pick up on children who are weaker than him and bully him. They also get violent and brutal sometimes. This is something that should be stopped at once, this is the dialogue everyone speaks when discussed. All have their heads screaming to stop this, but also the question arises how? How to raise your child to be non-violent?
There is nothing that is impossible and cannot be done if tackled in the right way. Same goes for this problem. You can definitely raise your children to be a good girl or a good boy if they are handled with love and patience. There are a few ways to make your children realise that being brutal and violent can be harmful. If every parent decides to make their child non-violent from the very beginning, the world will surely become a better place to live in. Here are few ways to make your children non-violent.
1. Create awareness: the most important thing that every parent should do is, be friends with your children. Make them comfortable enough that they do not have to think twice before sharing their problems with you. When a child is being bullied, he is already scared. He should not have the extra burden to whether share it with you or not. Usually what children think is that if they come and share anything that involves violence with you, you will shout at him. Mostly the bullies are aware of the fact that the child is weak and will most likely not tell anything to their parents. This encourages them to bully the weak child more.
So make sure your child is comfortable in sharing anything with you, without hesitating or giving it a second thought. Make your child trust you that you will help them out and no scold them. Second thing that you should so is, create awareness in them. Teach them how to be aware of violence and come and share tell you if they are facing any such problem. Do not reprimand them for being a coward.
2. Encourage appreciation: follow the rule of give and take, be empathetic towards them to develop the same feeling in them towards others. Teach them to identify other’s emotions and to take an approach towards other that is non-violent. Play a game of hypothetical situations. Give them any situation and ask them questions related to emotions, like “how the person is feeling in the situation?” OR “How he should react to that situation?” They might not give you the correct answer and you should not even expect it. Just take it as an exercise to build your child’s assertiveness. This will build empathy in them and they will approach others with an emotional connect. Being a parent try to know how your child is feeling so that you can help them better.
3. Teach them to make decisions: usually, weak children are the target of bullying, because they do not respond to situations. Teach your child to make decisions and react to any situation promptly. Being assertive will help them counter-attack bullying or violent actions. If you are teaching your child to be decisive, without fear or anger, they learn how to portray confidence, which helps them taking control of any situation and preventing any violent fights. Teaching them to take decision also makes sure that he is learning to think about possible reactions to any other person’s actions. This further ensures that they will take any action cautiously, after thinking about the repercussions and will also avoid any probabilities of getting into a violent action.
4. Respect differences: you are the first teacher for your child, they will learn from you and your behaviour. So teach them to be respectful about differences. Everyone need not be same or the way you expect them to be, so respect them for what they are. Make sure that you do not put up any behaviour in front of your children, that might not be right for them. Especially dealing with fights between you and your spouse. Resolve them privately and if in front of them, amicably. This will help your child understand that there is nothing wrong in two people having two different opinions and regardless of the differences, they respect each other. Speak wisely in front of your kids, do not use bad words, as they learn what they see.
5. Talk to them: parents can be the best friends of their child. Talk to them, know what is going on in their life. This can be a difficult task sometimes, but you will have to find out ways to get out information from your child. Know your child, take out time for him. Even just the thought of you being for them just around the corner makes them strong and confident, it gives them a sense of security. Make sure you spend some time with them every day, having casual chats like how was your day or something. This will keep you aware of anything is going wrong in their life. And it will also help build a bond between you and your child and he will become comfortable in sharing anything with you.
You are definitely the best parent, but the growing incidents of child bullying and violence is a major concern. To make the society better start from your home and teach your child not to be violent or aggressive, because violence or anger is not the solution to any problem.