MOM: You Were Once a Child, Now Your Child is One

John Davenport - 30 May 19

You were once a child, no doubt, but how much of your childhood do you remember?

Sometimes you hear people begin important conversations with lines like “when I was 7 …”

Such conversations may interestingly stir you back in time into fading memories of your childhood like ones listed here.

Most adults, however, remember too little of the precious time they spent growing up with families and friends.

For some, this is probably because they had an unfortunate childhood, one they wouldn’t even like to remember.

Others naturally outgrew life, forgetting its events as they move on to embrace the challenging responsibilities of adulthood.

If you are privileged to have a really great childhood then you likely wish you could experience it again as you occasionally gaze with nostalgia into that colorful distant past.

You clinch on dearly to fading memories from that formative stage of your life because it was remarkable.

But as a child, you really didn’t have much control over life. You had no clear focus, no serious planning and thinking yet you have grown to admire and cherish your childhood ‘achievements’.

Time and events may have robbed you of your early memories but looking at the person you have grown to become today, you can see how much work your parents put into raising you.

Your folks gave your life a direction through good guidance, selective exposure, education, and training.

They nurtured and taught you within the limit of their skills. They systematically guided you into adulthood and today, you are proud to call them your parents.

No doubt, they are equally proud of the person you have become, knowing very well that they did a great job in raising you.

Can you imagine where you would be in life today had your parents not taken the steps they took?

For you with a happy story, time is near (if not here), to repay your parents for making you the awesome person you have become. One way to do this is by bringing up their grandchild in a way that they would be proud of.

Your approaches may be very different from those they took with you but the goal remains the same – to raise your child to become someone everyone will admire in the nearest future.

Someone who will grow up, look back and smile at you with gratitude for the efforts you put into their lives when they were young and naive.

This task shouldn’t be too difficult to embrace; you have been given YOU, the true motivation you need.

And if you had an unremarkable upbringing, take it as a challenge to do better with your child. Giving what you don’t have is nearly an impossible thing to do but knowing that is a good headway.

Education is generally the way to begin. Do not comprise on your child’s education. Invest your life’s earning in sending the child to school.

Be personally open to continuous learning so that you can be better equipped to train your child well.

Learn good family values, practices and methodologies.

Apply those as appropriate in raising your child and tomorrow you would be happy you got above the limitations of your parents to produce an exceptional adult for a child.

You were once a child and now your child is one.

Whether or not your childhood is something to cherish, make for your child a better one. You want to have a good reason to smile tomorrow.

You want to give your child a happy story to tell in the future. Remember, the legacy you leave behind today, they will likely propagate to future generations.

Your child is a project and his or her outcome in life depends on your inputs. So get to the drawing board now and begin planning a life for them.

John Davenport

John has always been desirous of supporting people in the relationship. He is the chief editor of www.sociotelligence.com, a site that helps people become more social.

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