{"id":3772,"date":"2014-08-25T07:43:13","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T07:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wp3\/?p=3772"},"modified":"2014-08-25T07:43:13","modified_gmt":"2014-08-25T07:43:13","slug":"paying-attention-to-our-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sunnionline.us\/english\/2014\/08\/25\/3772\/","title":{"rendered":"Paying Attention to Our Children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"images\/stories\/muslims\/fatherson.jpg\" border=\"0\" style=\"float: right; margin: 5px;\" \/>When we pay attention to our children, we learn a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When a child exhibits aggressive or rebellious behavior, it is an act of self-assertion. When a child destroys an object, it may just be an act of exploration or play. Crying and shouting are a child\u2019s arsenal used to get what is needed from parents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>  <!--more-->  <\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When a small girl winds her hair around her finger, or puts her hair in her mouth, or stutters when she speaks, they are signs that she is under stress and unable to express in words what she is causing her distress. She may be scared for herself or for someone she loves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The reason for the child\u2019s distress needs to be uncovered in a calm manner. The child should be reassured of the parents\u2019 love and support. Everything should be done to keep the child\u2019s anxieties form becoming deep-seated, which will have negative implications for education and future social development.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Whether they are passive, obedient, nervous, or rebellious, all children have a tremendous capacity to learn, which is greater than at any other time in their lives. These are the formative years, and it is critical to instil good habits in our children.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We should get them into the habit of reading the Qur\u2019an, remembering Allah, offering their prayers, making ablutions, and going to sleep in a state of ritual purity. They should be taught to respect their parents as well as others, and to say \u201cplease\u201d and \u201cthank you\u201d. Parents should instill in their children a love of reading, teach them good study habits, and help them develop their skills.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Children should be taught proper hygiene. They should bathe every day, brush their teeth regularly, comb their hair, and make their beds. They should learn to take care of their own basic needs and get in the habit of sleeping early.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Lying to children makes them fearful and insecure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Violence on television is a product of our society. It is possible to try a week without television, getting everyone agreed to it, and see what the affects are at the end of the week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Superman is bulletproof, flies through the air, and has heat vision. Batman lives a clandestine double life in order to fight crime syndicates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The imagination can cause a child to adopt a fantasy persona. At times, a child might not respond when called by his or her given name as an attempt to escape from reality and preserve the state of imaginative play.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Jealousy is a natural behavioral response when a child is not shown sufficient love, care, and affection. The child is forced in that case to attract the parents\u2019 attention through negative behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Our children should be allowed to interact with each other under our watchful gaze. Older siblings should be allowed to carry their little brothers and sisters and help out with their needs. An older child should not simply be punished for misbehaving towards younger siblings, since punishing them creates feelings of resentment. Instead, we should take the occasion to instruct and guide the misbehaving child.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Too much mollycoddling can be as bad as showing harshness. Both situations can hinder children\u2019s abilities to develop healthy social skills and the skills they need to successfully cope with life\u2019s challenges. Empathy, compassion, and mercy are essential to our children\u2019s well-being, but in excess they can smother the children and have negative consequences on their development.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The time we spend with our children is far more precious and valuable then the money we lavish on them. They need our good example and our companionship. I know a case where a father gave his daughter a thousand riyals as a reward for her doing well in school. She returned the money to him and said: \u201cTake this thousand riyals and give me an hour of your time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Being inconsistent with our children confuses them. They need to know what is expected from them and we need to make the boundaries clear. We need to explain the rules to them so they understand and accept them. This makes it easy for them to act as expected. We need to review our polices with from time to time, but it is crucial that we are consistent. We cannot enforce a rule on them one day and ignore it the next. This just makes them confused.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In some families, one parent is consistent at all times and the other is not. This causes stress for children and induces them to misbehave.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It is vitally important that we are just between our children. Allah says: \u201cAnd be just among your children.\u201d This applies equally to our sons and our daughters.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Giving preference to one child over another because of their intelligence, looks, school performance, or gender creates jealousy and resentment in the disfavored child. It causes the child to behave badly in order to get back at the adults.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We often find it funny when our small children say bad words for the first time, not knowing what they mean. We think it is cute and we may laugh or clap in response. When my son was small, he could pick up words very quickly, including insults and foul language. I did not allow myself to laugh when he said those things. Instead, I gently explained to him that it was a bad word.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We need to find the source from which our small children learned those bad words. They certainly did not think them up themselves. They either head them from a neighbor or relative or some other source. It is important to identify that source and prevent the children from hearing that kind of speech again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We need to let them know that such behavior is wrong, while being calm, gentle and patient in our response. We should praise them for saying good things and speaking politely. If we punish them for using foul or rude language, we should do so by withholding from them something they want, like an outing or a trip to the store.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We need to raise our children with love, encouragement, consideration, and attention, not with insults and harshness.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Source: <strong><em>IslamToday<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When we pay attention to our children, we learn a lot. When a child exhibits aggressive or rebellious behavior, it is an act of self-assertion. When a child destroys an object, it may just be an act of exploration or play. Crying and shouting are a child\u2019s arsenal used to get what is needed from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c71-introduction-to-islam-muslims"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Paying Attention to Our Children - SunniOnline<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sunnionline.us\/english\/2014\/08\/25\/3772\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Paying Attention to Our Children - SunniOnline\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When we pay attention to our children, we learn a lot. 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