Summer vacation is so dear and close to heart to the children and parents. The charm of this has not reduced since ages. Every child no matter what is the age has a big list and a thorough planning of how to spend the vacation. The Parents on the other hand have their own list what they want to do for their children. The fun, recreation. tours, travel, various classes and education crash courses are very well taken care of which is required to re energize self from the busy schedule.
Somehow unfortunately the nourishment and nurturing of heart and soul is left out. Vacation is the time when both Parents and children get more time together which is awaited by both. Family bonding, need to belonging to the family, love, care and respect for each other is most wanted by each one in the family. It is a true fact that all of these give a person the strength in the tough time and inspiration in the growing phase. The lifestyle and the need of moving ahead towards development have made almost everyone busy and always short of time. Developing values in a child is as important as providing him with all the necessities and luxuries of life, the vacation can be the best time for this.
In spite of having all the knowledge, smartness and intelligence if you miss the values within you, you fall back and keep on wandering what went wrong.
When we talk of values the thoughts come is honesty, truth, loyalty, generosity, respect, following tradition etc. but it is much more than this. The need is to understand the importance of values. Each and every child is unique with the value of his own which is very dear to him. It is to be understood that developing value in child and self is not to become socially appropriate or being appreciated all the time but when given a thought value is the only hidden factor needed to succeed in relationship, student life, personal life and professional life. There is no particular age in developing the value the sooner the better and then it is a lifelong process.
The process starts with connecting with self and the child. The culture of the family contributes a lot in developing the values. It is a human nature that they believe and follow what they see rather than what they are told to do. Harmonious Parent- child relationship is the key to this. The children should get connected to their parents as they are concerned about them all the time and the parents should welcome the new generation with their thoughts, ideas, curiosity and anxiety. There should not be generation gap while understanding each other. Growth and changes are inevitable whether one likes it or not. Moving forward with it is the need of an hour and should be done lovingly. The most important contributing factor to holistic success is values.
Developing values should not be taken as an activity but it’s a process and living with them matters. It is heard most often that children now-a-days don’t have values. It’s not true they do have values but not given importance by them or are not in their prior list. The development in technology is at such a pace that everyone is on Gadgets more than with people as it is so tempting. It may connect you with the whole world by just clicking a button and sitting in a sofa, but what is left out is connecting with self and the family. It is like getting all the knowledge but not knowing how to implement.
Here comes the role of values— love, care, respect, compassion, kindness, cooperation, generosity, honesty, loyalty, work ethics, attitude, traditional value, cultural value are few to mention. In spite of having all the knowledge, smartness and intelligence if you miss the values within you, you fall back and keep on wandering what went wrong. The summer vacation is the time when the parents can be a part of the process in developing values in the child in the way that suits them and not in instructive mode. These values will give them the ROOTS to be grounded, WINGS to fly and REASONS to come back.