It is true that your little one has her own little community that she feels close to. There could be close relatives and others who are close to your family. However, most parents are not keen about enabling an environment needed for children to really get to know their friends and family. At about age 3, the child will feel the need for a community. As parents, it is important you understand the light that will come to your child’s life through the connecttion she feels with a community.
The little darling who has been at home surrounded by love and full of delight is now ready to start the preschool journey. As she will be slowly adapting to the society, it is a good time to build relationships and form bonds with friends and family as well.
Back in the day when children who grow up with their grandfathers and grandmothers, they were much more mentally healthier than the children who grow up in day care centers these days, spending there the entire day after school while parents are at work. The reason is that the grandparents or other relatives will make and effort to adapt according to the child’s requirements, playing with them and giving them full attention.
Grandma, please tell me a story
Those days, the grandmothers were like a living library. They were full of many wonderful stories. The children would love to cuddle with grandma and listen attentively to those delightful stories. This is a great way to improve the listening skills of the child. Because of how delightful these stories were, children developed the habit of listening with keen attention. This also helped develop the creative imagination of the child. These are the advantages the child receives by having an amazing community around him who would nurture him with love and care.
The protection for the child
When a calf is born to an elephant herd, all the female elephants in the herd can produce breast milk. In the same way, when a child was born back in the day, the happiness and pride was shared by the entire family. The bond between immediate relatives was so strong that even the aunties in the family would nurse the child. If the mother has gone to the paddy fields or the river and the child starts to cry in hunger, it wasn’t powdered milk that they gave. The relationships were so full of love that the aunties did not mind sharing the breast milk they produce for their own children with a child not their own. This used to bring so much strength into the child’s life.
Great experiences
When a child grows up amongst a group of loving and protective friends and family, it creates a valuable environment in which the child can share many experiences. Those days, the parents were not glued to their smart phone screens like today. They never avoided answering the child’s curious questions. Children those days always had a stream of questions at the tip of their tongues such as where do the clouds go, how do flowers get their colour etc. Those days, children had people who would answer all their questions and listen to all they had to say. This gave the child the opportunity to easily share their experiences with others.
Support and strength
A child feels safe when she grows up among a community of friends and an extended family beyond the confines of the micro-family of only mother and father. A child who hasn’t formed relationships beyond her micro-family is similar to a person lost in a desert. It can make them feel empty and lonely. On the other hand, a child who grows up developing strong bonds with friends and relatives will go onto become a person with a great personality because of the strength she receives from these bonds.
Learns co-existence
The child who grows up all alone is not accustomed to sharing. Even the relationships with immediate family could be weak and limited. Mobile phones and computers are damaging social relationships day by day. People have become so distant that even people who live physically close to each other would only connect through social media and not even want to visit their immediate neighbor. This habit trickles down to the child before you even know it. When mom and dad won’t even form a friendship with a neighbor, the child too does not learn to connect with the society.
Separated families of the today’s world
Unlike in the past, some families are separated, and some of them do not even live in the same country. This prevents the child from having the opportunity to get close to the relatives. It is important to allow an environment in which the child can connect with his tribe even if some relatives are physically distant. Otherwise, these relationships would fade without you even knowing. Even though it is sad to mention, this is important to discuss. In some families, children don’t build friendships even with their first cousins. Although they may be going to the same school and the same class, they don’t develop a sense of kinship. As parents, it is vital that you somehow nurture the relationships with your friends and family without allowing the children to feel lost and lonely.
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