Asia Comportamento Editor's Blog HK People News

Parents have to learn to say, “I love you!”

Written by Daniel Otero

Mom, Dad, say you love me!’”

 

By: Daniel Otero

 

Parents have to learn to say, “I love you!” Furthermore, they have to learn to show it!

  

With the growing of times and growing pains, life isn’t savored anymore with so much technology and distractions.  People are too busy to know what is important. Because time passes by and by the time they wake-up, 10-years have easily gone! Years which will never be returned.

 

The same thing goes with parenting.  When you have a child that is asking one-thousand questions; however, dad prefers to play mahjong, while ignoring his son. And mom scolds the child to just shoo him away!

 

Silently, the child leaves with tears and there’s no more family communication.  The formative years are done and then people say, why are teenagers so rebellious?

 

It doesn’t have to do only with age.  It has to do with mom and dad ignoring their child during those years, when the child’s heart was open at five-years old.

 

Question, will it still be open when the child is 15?

 

I sincerely doubt it.  Oh those terrible-teenage years, when the child is acting out and bitter at the unresponsive parents of his childhood.

 

Parents, listen carefully, those years people can never get them back!

 

For this reason, it is important to share with your child when he or she is around five to 10 years of age.  While the heart of childhood is still open.

 

This heart won’t be open for too long when the kid reaches adolescence and is doing stupid things: like acting crazy to get into trouble and have the attention of his or her parents.

 

One may ask, why does it matter?

 

The answer is simple, any idiot can bring a child into this world.  The true measure of a man or woman is how they raise that baby.

 

For this reason, like in China and other traditionalist countries.  Don’t have a baby just because you’re married or the pressures of family and society tell you to do so. No, many people go wrong in this case!

 

Better to wait when a couple is good and ready to answer all the child’s questions.  A child at this age, from three to five will open his or her heart.  But constant verbal abuse and tongue lashing will make the kid’s fear turn into deathly silence.

 

Therefore, what once came naturally, will be forced out when a boy or girl reaches puberty and they don’t want too.

 

A child’s curiosity will cease and they’ll simply stop asking.

 

For parents who don’t want to follow in the mistakes of the past done to them and leave their child’s pure heart untouched, there’s a way to stop this negative-vicious circle.

 

For one, if a parent isn’t sure what to do when the child is born?  Start with reading a good book by Doctor Oz or other experts in the field of pediatrics.  Nowadays, for those whom are too lazy to read or can’t read all that well, there are videos/shows/internet to help the parents gain the right direction on parenting.

 

But never allow a decade to pass through a child’s formation, if not, you’ll lose your kid by the time he or she is above 13-years old.

 

Now, that’s ‘food for thought’!

About the author

Daniel Otero

A New Yorker who has been living in China for the past 10 years. He's a freelance writer/journalist and ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher.

A former member of the military with extensive travel to 50 countries and has lived in six.

Lover of life, good food, travel, writing and dealing with social issues.