Who creates the type of children we have?

The other day, A friend lamented the children's behaviour getting even worse. He wondered why children do not know how to respect people and behave correctly.

Are the children at fault? These children are certainly not born bad. If that is so, what possibly happened to cause a lot of children to behave thus?

The fault actually lies with the teachers! Wait a minute. When I say teachers, I do not mean those at schools. I mean the very first people in a child's world as well as others who come into contact and can influence the child during his developing years. Of course, there are others, such as school teachers, who still can influence the child at a later stage in life but the chances are less.

Children in the first place learn by example. They imitate. They behave the same way their parents do. (Of course, there are a very few exceptions who, from books and talks, realise their parents' mistakes and take steps to change.)If their parents are seldom with them, then it is the child-minder or baby-sitter or grandparents who pass on their actions and beliefs to the child.

So, how can we fault children for a certain behaviour when the children learns to behave in that way through what has been the only examples he had ever known?

This is something young people intending to get married and become parents ought to think of. They are not just going to be husbands or wives and parents but also teachers. In fact, they are the most important teachers in the world. From them, their actions and their thinking, a new generation of heroes, trouble-makers, leaders, terrorists, good law-abiding people or law-breakers are born. The outcome depends upon the parents' examples, teaching or neglect of their duties. The world is at the mercy of parents!

Parents today are sometimes too busy earning a living to have much time with their children. The wiser parents realise this and so have the discipline to have less children so that the limited time, energy and other resources when distributed to every child in the family would be sufficient to have no child feel neglected.

Neglect has been the cause of many problems in child upbringing. When there is neglect, the child's mistake is not corrected immediately. The mistake which could be in the form of some undesirable action, language or attitude, is allowed to establish itself, becomes a habit and becomes a part of the child's personality.

In an earlier post, you must have read about the standard one, must be seven years old, gangster-like boy who slashed another pupil's testicles just to get fifty sen. Nobody in his family must have known or realised that their child has become such a monster at such an early age. The neglect could be due to insufficient time to look into the needs of the child. Parents must find the time to teach their children the right way, find the time to correct undesirable things learnt from the surroundings and have the time to love the children.

Yes, love is just as important in the process of growing up. Children need love so that they can learn to love themselves, to love their fellow human, to love God and to love you.

Just see how important parents are. It's a challenging role but one which parents must love before deciding to be one.