THE 12 COMMANDMENTS FOR PARENTS

In order to raise our children properly, we must be ready to invest the best of our time, effort and financial resources at our disposal. Thomas Edison said, "I did not have my mother long, but she cast over me an influence which has lasted all my life. The good effect of her ready training i can never lose... Her firmness, sweetness, her goodness, was potent powers to keep me in the right path. My mother was the making of me. The memory of her will always be a blessing to me"

Amongst the commandments a parent should strictly follow are the following:

1. Do not underestimate your child - he can understand more than you think he does and if you make him believe you think poorly of him this might affect his development.

2. Don't use threat - a child loves a challenge and once threatened he might probably go on and do what he wasn't suppose to just to see if he can escape the punishment.

3. Do not bribe your child - if you are trying to get him to learn for money for example, he will fail to understand the importance of learning, all he will get from this is the importance of money.

4. Do not make a small child promise something - small children can't hold promises so don't force them to lie and then punish them because they did that.

5. Do not keep them under a short leash - to grow up normally children need some space, some freedom.

6. Do not use big words or too many words when you are talking to your child - keep your ideas simple and concise so he can understand every thing you have to say.

7. Do not expect an immediate and blind obedience - it is not recommended, the child has to be learned to think for his own not to follow orders.

8. Do not indulge him too mush - he can develop compartmental disorders.

9. Do not compromise when it comes to the rules of a game - the trick for a game to become educative is too have its initial rules respected.

10. Don't impose rules that don't go with the age of your child.

11. Do not try to inflict quilt - quilt is not an appropriate feeling for children, especially if they are little.

12. Don't give your child orders that you don't take seriously - your child will try to please you and giving him an order is drastic, and it becomes cruel if that order is a joke.

All these "commandments" are addressed first to the parent. But they are to be referred to by teachers and educators as well. Along with the parents, they will settle upon an attitude and strategy for the education and growth of the child, so that they can give him all the things he needs to properly develop emotional and physically.