Some things remain timeless truths, unchanged and undimmed by the passing of years, particularly when it comes to raising children. The advice passed on from generation to generation about how to do the very best by your offspring remains constant, no matter how much fashion or society changes.
So here are 7 timeless truisms about family life.
- Wisdom comes with age so pay heed to the advice from grandparents and other relatives and friends from older generations. They’ve been there and done that, and their experience of life can be an essential guide.
- Follow your instincts where your child is concerned, whether that’s about health or behaviour. Often your gut feeling about your own child will be proven correct so stand your ground when you need to.
- The most important gift you can give your child is the one of love. Knowing they are loved and treasured will give them the emotional security so crucial to growing up with a genuine sense of self.
- Tough love is equally as important as the unconditional stuff, too. If you’re too soft on your kids when they are at their most impressionable, simply because you love them too much to say no, then you are storing up a heap of trouble for later life.
- Establish boundaries from an early age – children need structure and discipline that will teach them how to operate in the world beyond your front door. By all means, encourage them to be an individual but impress upon them that they must learn to get on with others to get on in life.
- Always be there to talk to your child. You will be the best possible shoulder to cry on when they start to experience life’s tough lessons, such as the first broken heart, being betrayed by a friend or failing an exam.
- Let your children go. The hardest lesson of all, this is also the most important. When your job is done, you have to let your youngster go off to become an adult without trying to tie him or her to your apron strings.
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