ASPECTS OF PARENTING

Providing physical security and development
A parent's primary responsibility is to provide physical security and ensure their child's safety. Parents provide physical safety: Shelter, clothes, and nourishment; they protect their child from dangers; and care for a child's physical health and well-being.


Developing a child physically refers to providing the conditions that lead to the healthy growth of a child, such as training the body of a child through sport and physical games; assisting the child to develop habits of health; and to maintain regular medical well-child examinations.




Providing intellectual security and development
Intellectual security refers to the conditions, in which a child's mind can develop. If the child's dignity is respected, and the child feels physically and emotionally safe, then he is able to learn. The parent is responsible to provide an atmosphere of peace and justice in the family, where no one's dignity is encroached upon. The ideal environment is a nurturing one, free from fear, threat, and verbal abuse.


Intellectual development means providing the opportunity to a child to learn a multitude of disciplines in a variety of ways. Traditionally the focus has been on reading, writing, and mathematics, however additional "intelligences" may be just as crucial to a child's academic development.[4] Parents who strive to develop their child holistically will provide opportunities for their child to develop the following intelligences:


Linguistic intelligence
Logical-mathematical intelligence
Musical intelligence

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence

Spatial intelligence

Interpersonal intelligence

Intrapersonal intelligence

Providing moral and and spiritual development

Most parents educate their children within their own religious faith, spiritual traditions, beliefs and cultural norms, ethics, and value systems. Every child may be regarded as sacred, containing "the spark of celestial fire called conscience."

Obedience to parents can only be founded upon trust in parents, won by their unflagging devotion to the child's best interests. As a result, gratitude, empathy, and a high ethical standard will later develop. In order for children to be able to accept their parents' standards, they must feel genuinely loved and accepted by them. Parents must make sure that a child feels unconditionally loved.^[6]

 

Providing emotional security and development

To provide emotional security to a child means to secure his or her soul. It is to provide a safe loving environment, giving a child a sense of being loved, being needed and welcomed through emotional support, encouragement, attachment, caressing, hugging, and so forth. Parents nurture their child's emotional development by providing opportunities for play and social activity.

Emotional development includes nurturing and loving one's child, as well as giving a child an opportunity to love other people, to care for and serve others. The ability to love is a quality of developed soul. A child typically does not grow selfish if he or she knows what a joy it is to love another person. The family is the school of love, the place for a child to develop character and form the pattern for future relationships. To develop in a child an ability to love, these skills are crucial:

• Modeling empathy and compassion to younger and older, weaker, and sicker
• Listening to the child's heart and letting him know his feelings are understood
• Encouraging the child to care for others, help younger siblings, grandparents, or neighbors
• Teaching a child to organize parties for other people, play with younger siblings, etc.
• Model and teach social skills and etiquette