How to educate happy children
The objective of the education of our children should be to help them to be happy people, understanding true happiness, which does not depend on external things or events, but the one that is inside us and helps us to interpret that reality in a key of optimism and illusion.
The child happiness it demands the safety of the child, and this security supposes a proper style in education, a style that goes through the balanced and appropriate employment according to the age and personality of the child, of the discipline and the freedom and by the expression without measure of the love, of a human love that is, half necessary rigidity and half infantile tenderness. The truth is that there are causes for sadness or pessimism that may be in the child itself and we will have to see which of them we can solve and how.
But, how to educate happy children? The educational style that we are printing in our family also intervenes in a very important way in the happiness of the children. The most common is that parents are permissive in the current times and this has consequences for children. Prof. Aquilino Polaino affirms that "the permissive style of education has already given everything it had and its fruits have been bitter." We must "return" to a style that does not confuse permissiveness, let's do and comfort, with love nor with freedom. "
Another aspect that influences the children's happiness it is the rhythm of life that we impose (or that is imposed) on our children from a very young age. We have little time to be with them and the little we have available, we do not know how to enjoy it in their company. Remember that at these ages I lived with parents are very significant experiences for children, that deeply mark his mood in the future: pessimistic / optimistic, happy / sad, introverted / sociable, ...
Children's happiness: keys for parents
Recent studies have revealed that 40% of childhood happiness depends on parents. Therefore, it is about making the most of the time we have to be with our children. It is not so much quantity as quality.
The important thing is that we have a good time with our children, that the relationship is rewarding for all. Have fun with them and have fun with them. How to get this?
1. It is essential that we are with our children relaxed, without haste, without thinking about what we have just done or the thousand things we have left to do.
2. We must devise activities for home, the leisure time, the weekend, that are pleasant for the whole family. This does not mean that we have to be playing all day. What it is about is learning to perform each activity of daily life in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Gratifying does not mean lack of demand. Rather, the demand must be given in a climate of warmth, in a good emotional relationship. Remember that the true happiness of the child goes through an educational style that is composed half of tenderness and discipline.
3. Deep knowledge of our children. Know what their tastes, their illusions, their capabilities, their problems. For this it is essential to listen and understand our children. Knowing intuit what they need or worry them. This way we will avoid forming an unreal image of them, made to our measure, often resulting from our frustrations or failures.
So, if we observe that our son has few friends, no illusion, is sad, easily frustrated, spends a lot of time alone, ... once the physical problems are ruled out, it is time to think that the values (optimism, joy, tenacity, ...) they are not explained but they are transmitted with our life.
Elena López
