A Letter To My Dear Parent.....

The dream of every parent is to see the child excel among his or her colleagues. And this is why most parents strive at all cost just to put their children on the right path, be it social, moral or traditional. But mostly, some parents in their quest to make their ward excel at all cost will neglect the talents of the ward and try to force the child to also follow the crowd. Some parents will start to compare their ward with his or her colleagues, showing him or her how some colleagues are been excelling in the book knowledge, and parents always see their ward to be the black sheep among his or her colleagues when his talent is not in line with the crowd.

It's an undeniable fact that most parents don’t take delight in seeing their children grow and observing their unique talents, abilities and interests that each of them have and to see those things become strengths in their life. Some Parents get frustrated that their children are not passionate about anything and they see this as apathy or laziness. But that may not be the case; maybe your child is one who has a broad base of interests that needs enough time to develop. So as a parent before you talk about how to encourage talents, abilities and interests in your kids, you need to do a little check up on their day to day activities.

A lot of children have been forced to quit their talent at a tender age and follow the crowd by their parents, there are only a few parents that ask their children these golden questions, What are you good at, or what is your passion? What I always observe from most parents is that, once someone’s child is able to succeed from a particular field, most parents will just be rushing to also send their children in that direction, what most parents does to their wards talent is that, they will find a talent that most people are using, a talent that a lot of people has succeed in, Whenever a parents hears something about kids talent, he or she will get starry eyed and start thinking of ways and means of making his or her kids shine, where they can be the best, where they will go far. But this isn’t the purpose of talents, abilities or interests.

In God’s way of living it isn’t about income, accolades, position, or success. Parents should give their children plenty of free time to be themselves, especially if we don’t put expectations on their talents. What parents need to do is to observe their children as they play, that they will gravitate towards what they are interested in. As your kids play, watch closely, and ask yourself these questions: What do they choose to do with their free time?, What do they get excited about?, What do they want to talk about? Most of us today tend to know what our talent is in a latter part of our life, which is either too late for us or would have been more beneficial than the latter. Success is not one way, the fact most people are succeeding in this particular direction doesn’t mean your child too should also pass that lane, let your child be the exception in the million who has that unique talent to do what others cannot do. It’s the responsibility of the parent to help discover and encourage your kid unique talent and interest…….

Suntaa Abudu Ibrahim.
Social Commentator.