Author: Dr. Sandra Tsang
Associate Professor, Department of Social Work and Social Administration
Parents are important stakeholders in nurturing children’s growth. In today’s rapidly developing society, parents need to continuously learn in order to effectively navigate the various opportunities and challenges encountered during their children’s growth process. In 2021, the Education Bureau released the “Parent Education Curriculum Framework (Kindergarten),” emphasizing that parents should understand child development, take care of their own physical and mental health, and actively cooperate with schools to assist children in growing up happily and healthily. An ideal parent is one who is proactive and references the content of this curriculum framework to learn and improve. When practicing, the following key qualities of quality parents are worth considering:
- Visibility: While the quality of time spent with parents is undoubtedly important, it is also essential to have reasonable direct interaction with children for them to truly feel their parents’ love.
- Active Listening: Quality communication involves wholeheartedly engaging with children through attentive observation, listening, speaking, touching, and even smelling. Among these, it is particularly important for parents to listen more. Listening attentively often enables a better understanding of children’s thoughts and needs, allowing for appropriate guidance.
- Encouragement: Everyone, especially children, appreciates encouragement, particularly from their beloved parents. Encouragement differs from blind praise; it involves sincerely and promptly acknowledging specific areas in which a child has done well, enabling the child to understand why they are being praised by their parents. This boosts the child’s confidence and motivation, encouraging them to continue excelling in those aspects.
- Being Relaxed: Raising children is a serious matter, but if parents are overly anxious and cautious, they can create excessive pressure on themselves and their children. Therefore, parents who are relaxed, natural, have a sense of humour and creativity, and know how to have fun and laugh tend to have a particularly good relationship with their children. In such an environment, children naturally do not resort to misbehaviour to attract their parents’ attention.
- Effective Discipline: Parents who value the parent-child relationship also assist their children in learning right from wrong and abiding by rules. Establishing family rules from a young age helps children understand the routine of daily life, learn self-care, and develop good manners. When interacting with children, giving clear and concise instructions according to their abilities and expecting their cooperation and compliance are basic forms of effective discipline. With appropriate expectations, children naturally strive to meet them, and when parents provide sincere, timely, and precise praise, children feel happy and content, making discipline easier.
- Cooperation: Even if there is a primary caregiver in the family, the roles of both parents and their influence on the child differ. Different caregivers who can flexibly cooperate based on consistent disciplinary principles will find it easier to care for and nurture children.
