Raising A Happy Kid

By ensuring your child’s happiness, you could be securing their successful future.

- Vida Li Sik

ONE goal of every parent is to raise a happy child who'll eventually develop into a happy adult. Happy people work harder, thrive socially and – most of the time – achieve more. Children are also faster at learning and performing mental tasks when they’re happy.

Making sure your children develop into balanced adults can benefit society as a whole, and a good parent can do a lot to help their child flourish.

By meeting your children's physical and emotional needs, you are already on the right track. In fact, the more parents attend to their children’s emotional needs, the more they are building the children’s emotional intelligence, says Claudia Abelheim, an educational psychologist with The Family Life Centre in Johannesburg.

“There’s been research done that proves that EQ (emotional intelligence) is just as, if not more, important than IQ in determining a person’s success in life.

“Children need to learn an emotional vocabulary which comes from their parents providing for their emotional needs. It also helps to build self­esteem and sense of self by teaching a child that their feelings are important,” she adds.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT 

Of course, there are many factors that play a role in ensuring your child's happiness, but parenting is one of the most crucial influences. From infancy onwards, a child’s survival depends on adults noticing them and interacting with them.