Parenting Skills: Celebrating your Child’s Uniqueness

When addressing the individuality of each child, parents must be careful how they go about it. It is no surprise that knowing the makeup of your child will go a long way in helping them understand who they are. Each child is unique, with their own set of fingerprints to prove it. Individual personalities vary as much as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on a beach. They come in all types: shy, outgoing, or creative, as well as many other forms of uniqueness.

As their parents, it is our responsibility to spot these character traits and nurture them. Within a loving atmosphere any child, regardless of their personality, can flourish. By paying close attention, we can provide a positive experience by channeling their interests and thus aid their development along the way.

The interests of the child can vary as much as the individuality of the child themselves. It could be anywhere from interest in the arts to what it takes to construct a building or how to become an astronaut. Our part is to discover where their interests lie and do everything within our power to ensure they have every opportunity to ‘go for it’.

One of the ways of accomplishing this is to let them know how unique they are and that it is not necessary they be like everyone else. Peer pressure plus the expectations placed on them by society can do great harm if not tempered with the understanding that it is okay to pursue their dreams, not someone else’s.

It is also important that your child makes positive decisions when deciding what they would like to do. You need to encourage them to reach for the stars while tempering that with a good dose of reality. Whatever they decide to do must also be considered in light of what will promote a sense of accomplishment as it pertains to their community.

Along with seeing to it that your child succeeds in their area of interest, you must also establish rules and guidelines in order to prepare them for making right choices. Should they ever make a wrong choice that violates those guidelines, it is your responsibility to enforce those rules for their continued well being. You and your spouse will need to be ‘on the same page’ should this situation present itself, in order that the child not pit one parent against the other. Never allow the child to divide the parents. This would most certainly be detrimental to their individual development and well being.

In addition, it is also well to remember that, since your child is an individual, his or her own personal preferences may be different from yours. That is not a liability in and of itself; only if it would do harm to the child. It is okay to celebrate your child’s uniqueness, as long as it results in a positive experience. One way of balancing this approach is to make healthy choices in your own life. This way, you will be showing by example to your child how good choices are made. In so doing, they will be able to make right choices themselves. Also, let them know it is human to at times make a wrong choice. Once you have established this fact, it is imperative that you make sure they learn from that and apply their ‘lesson well learned’ episode when making future choices. Your child’s uniqueness is something special and they deserve every opportunity to not only discover what that is but to then move into it for a healthy life.