The T.R.A.I.N. Series: "A kids Manual to Parenting".

As a certified marketing research professional, I have discovered over the years that one of the best ways of ensuring continued customers' loyalty to your brand is by designing the products or services from the customer's point of view.

In the same vein, Parenting, though said to be a Herculean task, can be best simplified and become a more enjoyable process if parents and guardians will be ready to reconsider their approach to it by trying to understand it from the children's perspective.

This T.R.A.I.N. Series has been designed to take parents and intending parents who might be having issues parenting their children through certain time tested truths championed by great and successful parents that I have taken time out to amplify and extensively discuss in this blog post so that the true purpose of parenting will not be forfeited.

In this first edition, the T.R.A.I.N. acronym stands for

T - Teach

R - Rebuke

A - Admonish

I - Instruct

N - Nourish

TEACH

The mind of every child is a clean slate; be ready to write substances that will guide the course of their lives forever. That's your first responsibility.

The mind of every child is a clean slate; be ready to write substances that will guide the course of their lives forever. That's your first responsibility.

The first thing every parent must realize is that the best way to describe or illustrate the mind of every child is as a slate. Before the advent of modern forms of writing materials, writing activities have been done basically on slates.

The mind, is one of the major and the most important distinguishing features that human beings posses which gives us ultimate leverage over all other forms of life. It is so important to our existence because majority of what forms our persona or "being" are related to the mind.

It is the centre of decision, thought and will and these are basic determinants of the kind of life we will live.

Deformed adulthood is a product of deformed childhood. When you don't take out time to teach your children the basic necessities to getting the best out of life, you set them up for a deformed adulthood.

REBUKE

Be ready not to spare the rod and spoil the child. Tolerating vices or it's traces is setting up a future of regrets for them. Better is the pain of rebuke than the sorrow of regrets.

In the world where correction, chastisement or rebuke is fast becoming history, great caution needs to be taken to avoid creating a world full of regrets and sorrow for the posterity.

You need to realise that rebuke or chastisement can never be palatable to the receiver. The natural response to rebuke is not always sweet but this should not hinder you to rebuke or chastise, if it is done correctly. By "correctly", I mean, done out of love and with the sole aim of dealing with the vice or it's traces and not destroying the psyche or self image of the child.

ADMONISH

Be ready to understand life from their perspective. Your advice will only " make sense" when they sense your connection with their "world". That way you're not an "impostor" but a loving "big friend".

Most of the challenges parents have with their children stem from their inability to connect with their children enough for them to be able to understand them and discover the best way to communicate whatever advice, admonition or instruction they might have for them. When both the parents and the children live in separate worlds, communication can never be smooth. There's no doubt that when this happens the relationship between the duo will be affected negatively.

Parents needs to understand that when your children feel that you've deeply connected with their intimate self and they could sense that they can be vulnerable around you without feeling insecure, then they will become more receptive to whatever you are offering as a parent. This might mean coming down to their level and seeing life through their eyes but the result will always outweighs the sacrifice.

PS: Every parent was once a child too...

INSTRUCT

Be ready to put your feet on the ground when the need arises. One of the hardest thing which might turn out to be the best thing you can do for your child is saying NO. Know when and how to say it.

It will be a great error for you to think that you should or can meet every request of your child or children whenever it arises.

I am not against supplying the basic needs of your wards. As a matter of fact, when you don't, it reduces your self worth before your children. It is also not bad to indulge them at times too by satisfying other wants they might have as much as you can afford, everybody deserves the sweet part of life too. My point here is that you will be teaching them a vital lesson about life, if you learn to say no to some of their request at times. Life is not a bed of roses and ironically even if life were to be a bed of roses, remember that roses also have thorns. Allowing them know that there are two sides to life and that we don't always get what we want every time is a great gift and there's no better way to show them that than to learn how to say no to some of their requests.

Contrary to popular beliefs, this won't paint you as a bad parent if done out of love especially when the parent has been able to build love and trust in the heart of the child.

NOURISH

Be ready to give all of takes to provide every basic necessity of life.

Your first responsibility as a parent is to be able to provide the basic necessities of life for your children. Don't make babies you can't cater for. Your babies are gifts. They deserve a decent life, and something extra. If you can't give them these basic necessities, don't bother about having them.

When you have children that you don't or can't cater for, apart from the fact that you expose them to unpalatable conditions, you also stand the chance of losing your respect and honor before them.

Parenting has never been, and will never be an easy task. But the joy of parenting is producing great and wonderful kids you can be proud of and who will be proud of you and happy to have a taste of this world through you.

This series is designed to show you how to best parent your kids from their perspective. I will be sharing other secrets in the subsequent series. Make sure you watch this space while you keep your fingers crossed.

You can also tell a friend to tell a friend about this. You won't know how much of a great help this resource will be to someone and how many lives will be transformed when they access this.

I hope to get your feedbacks about how this has helped you

Love y'all.