Short Essay on Child Care at Home

A normal child during his daily routine comes in contact with members of his family, community, and his own age group. This interaction helps develop his personality. Members of his immediate family take genuine interest in his well being and development, and nurse him with love and care.

The home environment ensures maximum safety and facility for his all round development. Though mother is the central figure and epitome of optimal concern and sacrifice for the little one, the other members of the family also do their bit in this regard. While doing so maximum care should be taken of the following aspects: –

(a) Develop a sense of affinity toward the child leading to emotional bonds and to arousing of the Instinet of love, care, protection and sacrifice. This will give a child an inherent sense of security.

(b) Love is the center of this interaction.

(c) Parents should have through knowledge about the upbringing of the child, love alone will not do. One should know when and how to fulfill a child’s varied requirements and needs.

(d) Regularity of routine in feed, play, rests and sleep is essential for the healthy growth and development of a child. Irregularity may bring illness, laziness and may be a cause of concern for the parents even when they grow up.

Milk is the mainstay of a child’s feed, which a mother provides, but she must not indulge in over feeding a child unnecessarily even when he is not hungry. In later life, it may cause to develop an unhealthy habit of chewing and biting anything even paper, which is not only unbecoming but also unhealthy and unhygienic.

(e) Avoid sexual display in front of a child as he has some inkling of what it means: It may arouse his curiosity to know more about it or even attempt indulgence. Parents should have enough knowledge and tact to satisfy his curiosity.

A child today will not buy the line that stork brought his younger sister when mother went for her confinement: he has seen the bulging tummy which now becomes flat and he starts connecting. Help him understand this phenomenon without going into details. Most probably he will be satisfied because he has a reasonable answer to his curiosity.

(f) Discipline is necessary to develop creativity in a child but discipline should not mean denial. The child must have the freedom, howsoever restricted, for his normal growth and development.

(g) Punishment is a necessary deterrent that enables children to go along the right lines. However, punishment should be judicious, proportionate to the deviation and corrective.

(h) Family environment has a direct influence on a child’s psyche. A healthy and warm family environment would help a child feel secure and to respond in the same manner, whereas family discords would have adverse effect on his young mind.

All the members of the family owe this to the child, and it goes a long way in his normal growth and development, not only physical and mental but also social and emotional.