Recently I saw a chat show which as discussing on whether parents/teachers must show love to their children and make them understand and realize or should they scold them and be harsh with them? I was a keen watcher of this chat show which had 2 sets of people. One said that love must be shown and that’s the only thing. Because they were humiliated by parents and teachers. A few others struck to the usual saying “Spare the rod and spoil the child”.

I did not understand the concept for the long time because whats the intention of the parent and the teacher? To pull them down or to motivate? I think more than deciding whether a child should be dealth with love or be harsh with them, the question must be “How to Motivate a Child”. This would give numerous possibilities.

Even when a parent is scolding a child, the intention is not to humiliate them but to make them perform better and motivate. Sometimes the words that the teachers and the parents use are not really so perfect and that immediately affects the self esteem of the child. Yes, agreed sometimes the teachers do not bother about this and they humiliate the kids (not everyone though. Many teachers are great motivators).

Most of the times, when the parents are harsh with the kids, its because they don’t have a choice. Its not that they feel happy and excited about scolding their kids. So its about motivating the children. Whatever be the way, the choice must be only to motivate them and make them perform better. Is it possible? 100% yes.

Appreciation is one thing that most of the parents must do. While most of the parents spend a lot of time on finding fault and correcting the children, very little time is taken to appreciate them. Is this also very important? This will drive them to take responsibility and ownership to achieve the best.

So rather than debating “Showing Love or Scolding”, it should be “How to Motivate the Child”. Shall we have a round of discussion on these? Do write in all your comments as you read this.