Parents’ mindset influences children’s perceptions

A person’s attitude, relationships, and choices in life are influenced by the person’s perceptions, which in turn depend on the person’s mindset. Our mindset has a role in the way we speak, judge, think, feel and take decisions in life. It is important that we are aware of this and work towards developing a positive and healthy mindset, which should reflect in our attitude towards life and the people around us.

As parents, we expect our children to excel in everything they do and emerge successful in every situation. We do our best toward this goal and teach our kids to aim higher and dream bigger. It is imperative that we remind ourselves from time to time, that every child is unique and children gradually develop their own attitudes and personality in life. This is influenced strongly by what is instilled in the child by parents. The way a parent thinks/ judges/ analyses and speaks has an effect on how a child perceives any situation or environment. The innocent minds of children easily absorb parental behavior and develop similar perceptions as that of their parents.

The focus of parents should not be limited to bringing up children with intelligence and success, as there are many other factors that contribute to the development of a child’s personality. Learning from mistakes and failures, staying strong when you meet challenges, accepting unfavorable situations with faith, believing in your abilities, being willing to forgive others, looking at the brighter side of life, and learning to think positive are a few among the many signs of a growth mindset, that will have a positive impact our children’s emotional health, relationships, attitude towards life and overall wellbeing.

For children to develop a healthy mindset, it is necessary that we as parents focus on our mindset and not pass on our negative feelings such as fear, self-doubt, hopelessness, frustration, and resentment to our children. Allowing them to use challenges as opportunities to grow, appreciating their efforts, encouraging them to do better, teaching them to look at the hope that lies beyond their failures which comes from taking the failures as lessons, and helping them to interact positively with other children are some of the ways, in which we can contribute to the positive attitude of our children towards life so that they have greater outcomes in unpredictable situations and learn to make the best use of the opportunities that lie ahead of them.