• Home
• /
• Opinion

Don't pamper your children, make them strong and resilient

I have witnessed a considerable shift in parental attitudes towards child safety and resilience over the last two decades. There's absolutely no doubt that we must do all we can to keep our children away from any harm. However, as parents we must also know where to draw the line, so as not to hamper the normal developmental growth of our children.
Safety, definitely is not about depriving children of opportunities for exposure to the stress and strain of daily life. They must learn to deal with a peer who disagrees with them or says something unpleasant. They must also learn to take chiding from an adult or a teacher. They should be able to face failures head-on, pick up the pieces, and move on. Do not encourage your children to categorise every instance of conflict with another as abuse and victimisation. Also, avoid picking up the axe to fight their battles. Do not feed children with wrong notions about dealing with conflict and crisis. Teach them to be tolerant, forgiving, and resilient.
The advent of the technology driven era has resulted in a decline in out-door play and independent mobility for our children, depriving them of precious opportunities for life-skill training. So, how do we teach our children to face the vicissitudes of routine life? How can we protect our children from falling prey to the ills of social media? We must all be reminded to not fall into the rut of bad parenting that aims to 'prepare the road for the child, rather than preparing the child for the road'. Children come into this world with the innate ability for 'antifragility'. Let us not make them 'fragile' by depriving them of authentic learning experiences in the environment.
- The writer is an educator based in Dubai