Parents, the First THREE Years Are Crucial!
“Babies don’t understand anything!”
“What toddlers need is physical care mostly. Someone to feed, bathe and play together with them. That’s all.”
“What can they understand anyway? They can’t even speak much.”
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Adults often assume the first 3 years of a child’s life is a period where ‘they do nothing much, other than growing physically’.
They hence easily ‘hand over’ their ‘babies’ to other people who will care for their physical needs, e.g. Nanny, helper, and care centres.
They hardly communicate / teach their 0-3yo children anything much, because they can’t reply anyway.
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What many often fail to realise is, children (0-3 years) are NOT ‘designed’ by God to DO MUCH, because what they mostly do is ABSORB everything around them, like a huge SPONGE.
They see, watch, hear everything with NO ‘filtering system’ within themselves.
They assume everything as the truth.
What they mostly do is ABSORB everything around them, like a huge SPONGEIf an adult JOKINGLY tells a 2yo child that stealing is okay, that elephants can fly, and that scary clowns will take them away if they eat slowly, the child will not understand it as a joke.
The information is registered and absorbed ‘as it is’ by the child.
And.
Between the age of 0-3yo, they tend to test authorities and ‘order in the family’ (i.e. obedience is not their favourite word), so … no wonder we parents are reminded again and again about the importance of being involved, consistent, authoritative and the need to instill clear boundaries and limits.
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Having been reminded of the above, active involvements of parents in raising and teaching children since day one is unquestionable.
Let’s not trivialise our children’s early years.
They are placed in our family for a reason.
How have we responded to it?
Food for thought.
