Wednesday, May 2, 2007 - Contemplating: On Parenting :

Parenting might be one of the few scopes which I rarely, or never pondered upon before until today, where it hit me with a startling relevation that perhaps parenting has ceased to exist like before.

No doubt, the world is advancing swiftly, adults scramble to quicken their working pace to keep up in the rat race and the ones left behind struggle to make ends meet. The tremendous stress of job competition is so intense that many adults unknowingly shift their focus from their families to their precious careers.

The result of this ubiquitious phenomenon is certainly hitting hard on the children of these working adults. To start with, children would feel neglected and unloved by their parents, especialy when parents fail to keep their promises of spending quality time with their offsprings. For kids as young as toddlers, parents are needed most for encouragement as care. Parenting is imperative in the imparting of moral values, monitoring of children's behaviors and mannerisms and of course guide them along while making sure that the children stays on the right tracks.

Failed parenting comes with a whole lot of head- splitting problems. Say, recalcitrant children who simply refuses to comply with their parents' wishes. Or wayward kids who have no sense of manners and climb to the top of their parents' heads. Or worse still, crime-proned children who follow the footsteps of their incorrigible parents who fail to display a respectable example for them.

Parents who are clueless about effective parenting face the consequences of children being less undestanding, tolerant and respectful towards others. Children tend to be less sociable, cower away from responsibilities and often fail to distinguish the rights from the wrongs.

To curb this problem, I believe that parenting courses are useful in helping parents understand their children's needs and discipline them in an effective way. To further emphasize the importance of parenting, the author in the TIME magazine also feel that companies should introduce schemes to allow employees with young, growing children to take a few days off from their hectic schedules to spend quality time with ther offsprings.

For me, I have always enjoyed fine, noble parenting from my parents that I can say that I am brought up as a refined and upright child. Good parenting can never be replaced by anything, not teachers at the childcare centre, nor the maid, nor anyone else.

Parents are the only people who can nurture their children to become what they are today.

Nurture.

The future ain't what it used to be. hugged teddy at 6:15 AM