Learning via Parenting and Family Bonding

Love and bonding within the family is one of the simplest way to bring happiness into our lives! For most of us, our family forms the centre of our lives and everything we do revolves around our family.

When we first start our family and embark on the journey of parenthood, the little angels we bring to our families are the ones who brighten up our lives. As their learning journey begins, so do ours - We need to start to learn how to be parents!

To me, parenting is an ''exciting expedition'' in my life journey.  We need to first of all recognise that children and even babies too have emotions and moods. When they feel 'down' or 'moody', they can throw or display all types of tantrums via their instinctive modes such as crying and screaming. Hence, new parents often need to take some time to 'learn the ropes to recognise these signals' and devise ways to tackle or counteract them.

I first learn of ''respect'' from my parents and teachers in my childhood days. In those days, children were taught to respect our elders and obey them. However, in modern times, kids too requested for the respect of their parents. I was really taken aback when my son demanded that I 'respect' his privacy when I tried to search his school bag to check for any homework lest he forgot about them when he first started school!

Perhaps, with the exposure to the internet and early interaction with electronic and digital equipment, children nowadays are more well-informed than the kids of yesteryears. They can talk like adults and even command the same level of respect from us! When punishments are meted out, they can even 'quote the definition of abuse' to you and 'threaten' to report you to the police if they are canned or confined at home! As such, a lot of learning needs to be done before one can play the role of a competent parent nowadays!

I have to admit that my parenting role has added much stress to my already hectic work schedule but also enable me to grow at another emotional as well as intellectual level. In fact, part of the disciplinary and reward system I set up at home can actually be applied in the workplace as I believe everyone of us has a "child instinct'' buried within us. Hence, child tactics may be applied under certain circumstances.

As the saying goes, learning can happen anytime, anywhere and under any type of circumstances. As such, whether you are working, parenting, bonding in the family, mingling at social gatherings or participating in community activities with people of all ages and discipline, you have much to learn from all involved, including kids!

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