Ensure that you appreciate your child enough!

Ensure that you appreciate your child enough!
Human beings blossom through appreciation.

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom”
-Marcel Proust

Let us consider parents as the charming gardeners who bring happiness on their children’s faces and flourish their souls. All the parents try hard at the same and yet, sometimes, we as parents, feel that our efforts do not bear the fruits that we expect.
Why? It may be a lack of appropriate appreciation, in my opinion.

Appreciation/Cherishing/Admiration, how valuable is it?
Appreciation is an art, the art of recognition of quality, the art of feeling grateful, the art of understanding, the art of increasing the value of any asset of yours. Appreciation nurtures your child’s confidence, self-esteem and optimism. Appreciation motivates your child(ren) and encourages them to do something productive and meaningful, to be full of enthusiasm and to keep trying.

You want your children to be mature, responsible and successful but are you working wisely to build a happy self-esteem in them?
Start judging today by observing whether your children are able to make small decisions, do they feel happy at the little things, are they curious to know more? The answer will help you to judge yourself.

As the adage goes, “appreciate what they have, before time makes you appreciate what they had”. Start appreciating them now, for the good they have in them and for the good that they did. Your children’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated. Keeping your expectations low and increasing the amount of appreciation would enable them to fully utilize their potential by looking deeply at their capabilities. Consequently, they would set new targets for themselves.
Appreciation for kids is just like oxygen for survival. Keeping this in mind, appreciate your children for the little good they do. It could be behaving well, putting in a lot of efforts on a difficult task, keeping their stuff at the right place, watering plants, trying to fold clothes, doing writing practice, making a neat origami paper bird, performing better in tests, helping the elders at home with a chore, feeding the pet, solving a puzzle, colouring a picture neatly, leaving the play area as and when you ask them to or even when they share their thoughts and feelings with you. This list indeed, is endless.
In addition, it is essential to be cognisant of the fact that your children need your heartfelt appreciation and not just an empty praise.
Appreciation is, in a way, needed before as well as after a task. Encourage them before the beginning of an exam by saying, “don’t worry dear, I know you are well prepared for the same and you will nail it”. Your words will work like magic and considerably boost their confidence.
Alan Cohen beautifully says, “Appreciation is the highest form of prayer”.
Let’s pray daily by using some appreciative words for our children, like:

• Thank you.
• I am grateful to you.
• I enjoy spending time with you.
• All of us make mistakes, just learn from them so that you don’t repeat them.
• You are special to me.
• I appreciate it when you keep your dish in the kitchen after finishing food.
• You are a blessing to us.
• You light up my life.
• You mean a lot to me.
• You make me happy.
• Have a good day.
• You decided wisely.
• I love you.
• I am ready to listen to your part.
• You made my day.
• I liked the way you used the colours in this drawing.
• I know you will come up with a lovely solution to this problem.
• Your unique solution nailed this question.
• Wow! what a creative answer.
• Keep the good work on.
• Performing and learning are important. Winning or losing are not.
• You may even appreciate them through your gestures and expressions, like:
• Giving them a big hug;
• Patting on their back;
• Cheering them up;
• Clapping for them;
• Giving them a thumbs up;
• Giving them tangible rewards.
  Giving them little extra privilege for a day or two;

Appreciation is a very handy tool for you, a person who feels appreciated will always perform better. A mindful and careful appreciation as per the behaviour of the child can be a great addition to the toolkit of parenting. Parents should always appreciate and encourage their child, irrespective of the child’s age.
Always remember that each and every action of yours deeply influences your child. There’s a heap in your child’s mind and you need to decide what that heap should consist of!

Use PACE
PACE (Parent and Children Engagement) is a platform that would help you engage with your child in a manner that will add to your child’s positive growth. By using PACE, you can assign various holistic tasks to your children and effectively appreciate them by rewarding your children, by redeeming the coupons that your child would win on successful completion of those tasks. Download the app on Android or iOS and explore the various interactive tasks that it offers or contact us to know more about PACE.