By Phyllis Threinen
Your child's birthday is a golden opportunity:
- Everyone has only one birthday in a calendar year, so we always know when the day is
approaching allowing for plenty of planning time.
- Birthdays offer a rare opportunity for parents to focus on and plan a party with the
birthday child, one on one. (Every child likes to have positive attention from their
parents.)
- Birthdays are a great opportunity to teach values and life skills.
- Birthdays are a golden opportunity for parents and family to express their
thankfullness for the birthday child in front of the family. This is a huge self-esteem
builder.
- Birthdays are occasions to have fun, to take a break, laugh, and spend time getting to
know each other.
- Birthdays are golden opportunities to bond. Birthdays are part of the recipe for the
glue that bonds a family.
NOTE: Expensive gifts and frills are not what is important. Time, feelings, thoughts,
effort and actions are immeasurably more valuable. MAKE A MEMORY!
Birthday Party Life Skills - When To Start Teaching
At about 4 or 5 years of age, you can start teaching your child how to help with their
own birthday party. Ask the "how, what, who, when and why questions". You'll not
only get to know this little human being much better but you will also be instructing them
on how to ask the right questions. (and asking the right question is a life skill which
will be useful throughout their lives - education, job hunting, buying a home, etc.)
Giving a child more responsibility every year teaches them how to plan, organize, make
decisions, set goals, make decorations and invitations, even learn how to cook. Each year
they build on what they learned previously. (What a nice way to practice life skills).
Each year that you teach a new task, your child will develop confidence, competence and
how to work within the family. (they will become a big help to their brothers or sisters,
too). Have you ever been to a wedding where the mother ruled? Where she decided, planned
and organized everything? This is a good example of a parent who does everything for their
daughter. How will the young bride ever become independent and fend for herself in the
future?
On the other hand when a parent progressively teaches and observes his/her children
becoming competent, and developing interdependence then they know they have done their job
well. There is a kind of peace in that. Your child can do so much, I hope you will
consider working with your child and not for them. The benefits are great!
contributed by the Call Mom Line
