As parents, witnessing our child grow is among the plenty bittersweet moments in our lives. Accepting that they won’t always be our baby is hard but it’s part of life’s cycle and there’s no other way around it. It is our sole responsibility to be with them and guide them as they discover and learn what it takes to live. We must cherish every passing moment with them from their first words, first steps, first laughter until their first experience with school, human interaction, and of course love and heartbreak.
When children reach the age where they begin to feel things towards others, it’s extremely paramount that we are with them in this chapter, now more than ever. We of all people should know how tough this stage is, and sometimes how damaging. There are two parental approaches I discourage when it comes to dealing with our child’s romantic discovery. Let’s face it, dear parents, they’ll get there and we have to be ready in being the parents and friends they need.
The first negative approach to this is being too strict. Banning your child from understanding the risks and dangers of emotions will eventually lead to rebellion. This is how rebellious, secretive, and impulsive kids are shaped. Aside from that, kids will begin to lie to you and resort to others for advice that may not be the one they need. The second negative approach is letting your kids too much on their own — not supervising them, not listening to what they have to say and blankly nodding on their stories, and saying, “You’re old enough to know that” or “You should know what to do and face the consequences in the future”. This kind of approach will cause your child to be careless in his/her decisions and explore “too much” of the romance at a young and innocent age. So what is the best approach to effectively educate your child in love? Balance. There should be a balance between being strict and in giving them their freedom. We are parents, we should slowly introduce what love is, what it can do to our minds, and how it can affect everything in our life. We should also remind them that every good and bad decision they make for love results in either a rise or decline in their progress in life. We don’t have to decide for them but we have to be the first people they run to when things go bright or dark for them because of love.
We won’t always be around to watch over them but as much as we can, our guidance through one of their strongest stage in life will leave a strong lesson that will help them surpass anything. We can’t stop them from feeling, we just have to let them know we’re here to feel with them.
