Contents
Like farmers need agricultural principles for good harvests, parents require essential knowledge and skills to avoid educational mistakes.Parents often make more mistakes than successes with their children, affecting their children’s lives and future prospects.
Many parents make more mistakes in their interactions with their children than they get right, which directly impacts their children’s lives and their ability to achieve a better future.
Parental training reduces educational mistakes and enhances parents’ chances of success in achieving the educational goals of transmitting knowledge, values, and experiences, and preparing children psychologically, morally, and cognitively to reach their aspirations.
Consequences.. Results of Beginnings
What children do as they grow is a result of their upbringing and parental guidance, and the outcome of the family relationship. If the educational preparation is correct and sound, the results will be fruitful. Today’s children are tomorrow’s parents, and what they receive as young children reflects on them as responsible adults.
Safeguard Your Trusts
Children are a trust from the Creator in the hands of parents, and they must safeguard this trust with the best methods and means. This can only be achieved by acquiring the educational qualifications that help them protect and maintain the trust.
You can give what you lack
As the saying goes, “You can’t give what you don’t have.” How can parents transmit values, principles, and life experiences to their children if they lack the necessary qualifications, abilities, and competencies? Preparing children first requires self-preparation; otherwise, we risk our children’s futures if we are unable to prepare ourselves as parents.
Correcting Misconceptions
There are socially prevalent concepts regarding parents’ duties and their relationship with their children. Some of these concepts are incorrect and need correction, especially with changing lifestyles, generational differences, and varied ways of thinking between parents and children. Effective educational concepts need to be reinforced among parents, who should strive to qualify themselves both knowledgeably and behaviorally. This can only be achieved through more educational training.
Complexity of Modern Life
In the past, life was free from many complexities, and children learned customs and traditions from their conservative environment. The family institution did not face significant pressure in addressing problems, and it was sufficient for an uneducated parent to possess positive qualities and good morals to instill in their children, creating good and kind individuals. Today, the situation is different; children face numerous problems, and global influences impact various aspects of life, with the internet and television playing a significant and dangerous role. Thus, preparation to face dangers, overcome problems, and enlighten children is essential.
To Avoid Regret
When parents fulfill their duties towards their children by first preparing themselves to handle different stages of upbringing, they will feel they have done their part well and will live with peace of mind, knowing they have exerted their best efforts.
Success after that depends on the children’s wisdom and maturity. If parents have done their utmost and children do not achieve their parents’ aspirations, they will not live in regret because they fulfilled their responsibilities. In contrast, neglectful and unserious parents will live days of remorse and self-blame for their negligence and shortcomings, realizing it too late.
To avoid this, parents must fulfill their parental duties with the highest standards, using the best methods, and not delay this urgent task, as children grow quickly, and any delay in addressing their problems will lead to more disappointment and unfortunate results. Intensifying parental efforts provides a great opportunity to achieve parents’ hopes and aspirations, bringing them joy.
The Joy of Success
When children achieve their parents’ wishes, parents feel proud and elated, experiencing intense and delightful emotions as their efforts culminate in the desired success. In contrast, parents who neglected their children’s preparation and upbringing are deprived of the joy of pride and success, even if they pretend otherwise. This pride does not truly reach the depths of their souls. A father’s happiness comes from successfully preparing his child and seeing his qualities reflected in them. Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said, “A man’s happiness is to have a child who resembles him in character, creation, and attributes.”
Towards Promising Educational Traditions
As we face increasingly complex educational challenges, we need deep-rooted and robust educational traditions to withstand and overcome these challenges. We must establish promising educational traditions by having generations of well-prepared parents performing their duties at a high level, so the next generation can learn from their successful experiences. Such accumulated experience creates enduring and deep-rooted educational traditions capable of addressing new problems, overcoming current difficulties, and challenging future obstacles.
Any shortcomings by contemporary generations in their parental responsibilities will have a negative impact on future generations, complicating problems. Conversely, serious educational preparation improves the educational landscape, establishes a sound educational foundation, and heralds a promising educational future.
Invest in Your Afterlife
Who among us does not wish to invest in the world of eternity and paradise? We can achieve these hopes if we, as parents, work on the proper upbringing of our children, who will be our best support in the afterlife through their prayers, seeking forgiveness, and charity.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, “When a person dies, his deeds are cut off except for three: ongoing charity, beneficial knowledge, and a righteous child who prays for him.”
According to a narration, Prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) passed by a grave being tormented. Later, he passed by the same grave and found it not being tormented. He asked, “O Lord, last year I passed by this grave, and its occupant was being tormented, and this year it is not?” God revealed to him, “… his righteous son reached maturity, improved a path, and provided shelter for an orphan, so I forgave him for his son’s deeds”.
The righteousness and good conduct of children are undoubtedly due to having righteous parents equipped with knowledge and armed with advanced educational skills, fulfilling their educational and guiding responsibilities towards their children.
One way to ensure happiness in the afterlife is to raise righteous children, which benefits us in the afterlife, achievable only if we are capable of instilling virtues and experiences in them.