Friday, October 17, 2014

Modern Family

Parents always want what is best for their children; they want them to grow up happy and healthy. Parents will gather as many parenting books as they can to read while they are expecting and then once the child is born they will do everything in their power to help their child grow up in an environment that is comforting and filled with love.

 At 17 I don’t know much about raising a child and focusing all my time and energy on them, but there are others out there who are older and wiser than I, and have shared their advice on how to raise your child. According to a Dad who wrote the in his article, 7 Secrets to Raising a Happy Child, there are seven main things parents should be aware of that would help their children grow up happy:
www.tvguide.com

  1. Let your child know you are excited to see them enter the room.
  2. Teach your child it’s OK to be bored.
  3. Limit your child’s media.
  4. Let your child know they are more important than work.
  5. Let your child make a few rules.
  6. Teach your child -- don’t assume it’s all happening outside the house.
  7. Model appropriate behavior.

 There are two words that are repeated several times throughout his tips: let and teach. Letting your child do something shouldn't just be a privilege it should be something that is normal to them, saying to someone, “OK I’ll let you do this….” can come off as restrictive and biased. However, rephrasing it and asking the child why they want to do something or what prompted this, it show’s an interest into what the child is thinking and allows parents to communicate more effectively before replying with their answer. Teaching your child is always going to be something you should do and want to do, because it opens up the child’s mind to new things and it shows your kids that you want to learn new things and help them always.

One of my favorite examples about children being so observant, especially at a young age, is how babies can sense how confident you are with them while you’re holding them. Babies are a fear radar, and when they realize you’re afraid they react. They react because they want someone who is loving and isn’t going to get frustrated easily. Children pay attention to what goes on around them, they learn from what they see and hear, so if you can benefit from that by embracing their attitude to smile and be happy then do it. Children want to be happy, just as much as the parent’s want them to grow up happy.

5 comments:

  1. I like that you state you don't know much about raising a child because you are still a child, but I think, since you said that, you have to establish more credibility to who you are citing. There were a few comma splices and run-ons in your paragraph. Just watch your grammar a little more. I like your concluding sentence, but I felt it came out of the blue. Maybe build on your conclusion a little more. Also your last paragraph is double spaced but none of the others are. Over all, it was interesting to read and to think about.

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  2. I agree with the point you made about how babies can sense how confident you are with them while you're holding them because it is common to see dads who are clueless holding their baby and their baby crying. I also agree with the point about the ways of good parenting. Parents always being the dominant figure isn't good because then sometimes kids want to rebel and go against their parents.

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    1. If the parent shouldn't be the dominant figure who should be? Teachers? grandparents? community members? I think a parent needs to be the dominant figure, kids need to have the stability and constant effect of a parent.

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  3. I really liked the transition from the article to you writing about the article. It was very clear what you were trying to point out when you isolated the words 'let' and 'teach' and then talked about how those words applied to good parenting tactics. I would try introducing the last paragraph as a new idea because it starts a new train of thought but doesn't have a topic sentence so it seems to just continue with the last paragraph. I really like your writing. You come across as very knowledgeable about the topic and used a good balance of support and personal knowledge. I agree with the point you made about how a child requires a certain amount of freedom because as a teenager you want to feel like you can make your own choices.

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  4. I like the idea of the blog post. No one really knows the right way to raise a child so it was interesting to see what advice some people had. I feel like should have introduced the author of the article more rather than just as a dad because it makes the whole post sound less credible. There was also many grammatical and spelling errors that distracted me from the idea of the post. You may want to proof read your next post.

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