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The caring mother

Jul 2, 2010, 4:43 PM | Article By: Isatou Dumbuya

Mothers and their children are generally said to bond in the first few hours after the birth. Bonding, or the development of trust between a mother and her child, begins from the moment the two are brought together. During this time, mothers often breastfeed their children and hold them close, thus keeping the two in physical contact for the first precious hours and days of the infant’s life.

A child’s development encompasses many aspects including the physical social, emotional and the mental. In order for children to develop in all aspects, they must be supported in all areas and the one person most often responsible for this encouragement is the mother. Mothers tend to be the primary caregiver in both traditional and single parent families and thus are with their children more than anyone else. Mothers, therefore, are in the unique position of influencing their children's growth is all areas of development, beginning with the bonding and attachments that they usually develop with their children. As a result of that emotional bond between mothers and their children, she she she has deemed it fit to see into the mother-child relationship.

Nature has beset mothers the noble job to take care of children and as a result, children grow more attached to them. Thus, mothers must take it upon themselves to see to the activities of their children. While a discussion of a child’s relationship with their mother could easily become a highly involved, deeply psychological or sociological dialogue, it needn’t be so. Instead, any such discussion can be boiled down to the basics: the mother child relationship is probably the strongest relationship in a child’s early life and cementing these ties is rewarding.

First of all, observe your child. See what he or she wants right from an early age. Some children take up to reading, painting, driving toy cars, acting teachers just to name a few. This gives a clue on what the child may likely have as a hobby.

Do not dictate the child’s wants - At an early age, the girl child may begin to play with toy guns or the boy child with Barbie dolls much to the disappointment of the parents who may immediately want to put that to a stop. Parents dictate what toy or in what manner the child must play. Boys are encouraged to be aggressive and girls to be gentler and softer towards people. These socially defined roles as stated by sociology may affect the child’s ability and confidence in society.

Check the child's work - What most mothers fail to do is juggle work or domestic work with their children's affairs. To encourage your child at school, it is advisable to help your child with his or her assignment and to help revise what he or she has learnt in school that day and every other day. This would encourage the child to do more in school and to keep up impressing you with good grades.

Read to your child - If not only revising or helping your child with school work alone, you can also read poems, fairy tale stories or news to your child before he or she goes to sleep. This will help the child to develop a keen interest in reading before going to bed and current happenings in the society. In a whole, the child will become sharp and cultivate the spirit of nationalism at an early age.

Mothers should feel more attached to their children and see to it that their interest is foremost on their minds. All mothers should do what feels natural and right to them, and as long as mothers are happy then chances will be good that their children will be too.