WHY & HOW TO MAKE YOUR CHILD PROACTIVE?
Being the modern parent you know well that to excel in today’s competitive world, it is very important that your child is proactive. A proactive child gets things done and makes things happen for himself instead of waiting for them to happen. When your child is proactive, he is able to think and act ahead, before the circumstances change. Such a child creates opportunities and does not just sit and wait for a miracle to happen from the outside.
Let’s see how we can turn our little ones into proactive beings.
Organise little competitions:
Being proactive means taking responsibility of your winning and losing. Competitions give a sense of thrill which boosts up the proactive energy.
Organise competitions at home and take part in them as your child’s competitor. This will develop competitive spirit in them. For example, organise a drawing competition; this way the child not only proactively participates and thrives to win, you also get to draw and have fun together.
They learn what they see:
Of course, the best way to make your kid pick up being proactive is to show it in your own actions. Teach by example and show your child how ‘the proactive life’ is better. Start discussing about ‘being in charge of yourself’ and have kids practice being proactive in their actions. Children do stuff that they see grownups doing happily.
You could read them story books with a proactive character. When they see you admiring the character, they know that is something right to do.
The feel-good factor:
Your child will need to experience how good it feels to be proactive for them to develop the habit. Give them a task. Sit with them and write down their daily routine. Now guide them with some proactive tips and ask them to do their routine jobs in that way.
Your child will definitely see a noticeable change in their life. He will experience less stress and the level of confidence will go up as they slowly get a control over their duties.
Play interactive games:
Children like situations which are full of zeal and enthusiasm. Play some games with your child. Keep some reward for the winner at the end of the game. When you keep a prize for the game, your kid will start to give their best, and will focus on the game well. Such involvement will definitely give a boost in their proactive behavior.
Help set personal goals for your child:
Have your child identify a few goals and make a list. Then help your child achieve those goals step by step. Tick off the goal from the list once it’s completed. This will encourage him or her to create their own opportunities or control a situation rather than just responding to it after it has happened.
Maintain the right attitude:
When your child meets with failure, try to understand how he interprets failure. Teach them that being positive, about all kinds of situations, creates a healthy and proactive state of mind which helps to overcome difficulties at any given time. For example, your child might feel low or stupid when he gets a low grade in the math test. That is when you can help them see alternatives, like the test level was difficult and that they’re still capable. You can point out when they go unprepared and tell them it was a lack of hard work and that they aren’t stupid.
Parenting is a challenging task and one has to put in a lot of effort to make the child proactive. We as parents must keep tremendous patience and perseverance. Children have their own way of perceiving situations, and therefore it becomes important to look at the world from their perspective. That is the first step if we want to be able to help them be a fine citizen of the society.