Parenting in an African home part IV (4)

We emphasized on my last post about the role of religious institutions on the parenting of a child. We will today discuss how the personality of the child himself affects his upbringing.

The attitude and personality of a child needs to be taken into account in parenting. As there are different kinds of parents, different kinds of influence from society and religious organizations, there are also different kinds of children personality. The personality of a child determines the way the parent and society at large should handle the child.

Some children are stiffnecked and very stubborn and such needs to be treated with iron hands. It is interesting to note that a wise and reasonable parent cannot treat all the children as if they are all in this category. Through parental wisdom and experience, which is usual lacking in young parents, the parent would be able to determine what kind of child one has. The language stubborn children understand is that of cane and strict voice. It is wrong to pamper a stubborn boy or a stiff necked girl. This kind of treatment needs to be taken up as early as possible before the kid grows deep into a very bad habit. However, the parent should not also fall into the category of extremely strict parent, He or she should also speak gently to the child to let him or her know her fault and why being beaten.

The second category are the gentle, howbeit clever child. This kind of child is not as expressive as the infamous stubborn one. The child is clever about doing naughty things and still maintaining a good name in the society. The parent must not be deceived by this outward innocence. They should make sure to correct such a child when wrong without holding back. The parent should not so much praise the child for the good characters expressed, but they should approve of it. In essense, they should not make the child feel he is better than others. Also, the parent should have tactical and reasonable discussions with the child to really know the deep things in his or her heart, and the female parent should not be shy to discuss certain sensitive issues with the girl child.

As clear as it is, the personality of a child determines what kind of side the parent shows. There are lots of personalities, but for sake of grouping, they are grouped into two groups already explained.

So from this series, we've been able to note that the work of parenting is not only that of the biological parent, but also of the society, religious backgrounds, schools, peer groups and the personality of the child itself. All these people must work together to produce a responsible and well cultured adult from the little ones.

This brings an end to this particular series.

Please to not forget to like and comment on my post.

One love.