Children are like sponges and typically end up mimicking their parents behaviour and beliefs in some form or other – especially during childhood. When my daughter turned two, she would grab her play phone and walk all around the house into different rooms babbling loudly. It was adorable – but I realized how I was teaching my child even when I didn’t realize it. I worked from home at the time and would find myself on the phone with clients…and yes, I often would walk around my house babbling loudly to myself. She was simply reflecting me.
As children get older, their little filters are formed, and they begin perceiving the world through those filters. I remember sitting next to my daughter on the couch watching T.V. one evening, and she slid off the cushion and pointed to something on the floor. Little did I know for that split-second that she was pointing at a huge bug. She wasn’t afraid of it – she just wanted to show mommy the thing which was crawling around on the floor. She was curious and happy to point it out to me.
My reaction? I screamed. I’ll be honest, I am not a fan of bugs. Little did I know this would affect my child’s life in a very real way. She looked at me, looked at the bug, and also screamed. She scurried back to me for protection. Luckily for us, the man of the house had a chance to capture it and let it go outside, but the damage had been done. To this day she is still afraid of bugs and is not above screaming at one when she finds one.
Childhood Programming
As children get older, it’s easy to see how they are influenced by their friends, family and even their school. What are you telling your child about life? About money? About work? About other family members, or even, about other races, about themselves?
My daughter went to a private school in Kuala Lumpur – sorry to keep bringing her up but it’s the only real point of reference for me. One day she came home crying. She was five years old and her teacher had poked her head repeatedly and called her stupid for forgetting one of her books at home. She was devastated. Naturally, I had words with the teacher and the principal because this was unacceptable behaviour for me as a parent.
In essence, children are often born with a clean mental slate and can end up taking on thought patterns and beliefs from their parents and people who spend a lot of time with them. This can and often does shape their lives.
Whether we want to or not, as parents, we are likely to end up programming our children in some way. The question is are we building them up or tearing them down. One thing you can do to better understand what you are teaching your child is to write down your beliefs on topics such as
Health
Wealth
Work/career
Relationships
Marriage
Friendship
and whatever else is particularly important to you including spiritual beliefs. Once you understand your beliefs, note that your child may end up taking them on. If you want your child to experience the world differently than you do, the best way I know how to curb this is to change your own thoughts, opinions and beliefs about the world around you. Naturally, this takes time. I find myself often stuck in my own ways, but there are methods out there to support you in your own mental and emotional transformation. As you shift, so will your child.
About Little Human Scholars School and Full Day Daycare Centre in PJ
Little Human Scholars is an all-in-one childcare solution. It is a preschool, playschool, kindergarten, nursery and full day daycare centre (with extended hours) located in the heart of PJ.
In fact, the location is one of the things which makes Little Human Scholars so sought after – it is conveniently nestled near Jalan Gasing, University hospital, PJ Old town, PJ New town, Jaya One, Jaya33, and the PJ IT Mall.
The best part is LHS has premiere services many other schools in PJ don’t offer such as full-day daycare with extended hours, CCTV access for parents, and a nifty little phone app called Toddlytic which provides parents with automatic updates on their child’s development, behaviour and health checks.
With full-time guards always present at each of their locations, access to CCTV (which is in every room except the office, bathroom and kitchen areas), and very strict pick-up and drop-off rules, Little Human Scholars treats every child who walks into its hallways as one of their own children!
This place has it all: location, safety, health, IGSCE curriculum and play-based learning. What more could you ask for? Did I mention they also have transportation services and offer meal plans for students? It doesn’t get any better than that.
If you are interested in a tour of one of our centres (that’s right, there’s more than one), all you need to do is fill out the form here or call +6017-7303-025 and an LHS administrative staff will get back with you shortly!
Cheers,
Jana Moreno