Becoming A Parent Doesn’t Excuse The Use Of Violence Against Children

Any form of violence against children is not justified. Verbal or physical, no child deserves to witness or become victim of violence. They do not have a fully developed brain like an adult; they are kids and cannot always comprehend what we expect out of them.

And they learn what they observe.

I once spotted a two-year-old walking with a stick in our flat. Other kids were playing around her, but she did not harm anyone with the stick. She was just playing by herself. When I spoke to her dad, he mentioned that she does not know to hit, so it was safe to let her play with the stick.

Since children learn from us, if we resort to violence, they will learn to be violent too.

Why do we have to use anger to control them?

A lot of problems could be solved when we use love and kindness to control undesired behaviour. We must remember that children are naive and at an age where they learn from people around them. If we teach them with love and kindness, they will return the same.

It is a common belief that at least one person in a family should be strict. We even tend to complain to that one person to keep our child disciplined. But have we ever given a thought to how this could impact the child?

Children start thinking that no one in the family truly loves them. They don’t feel safe enough with us to express their feelings.

Why can’t everyone in a family collectively use their love and kindness to correct the child? This way, the child feels safe with all of us, and will never resort to lying and hiding things from their family.

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Giving birth does not permit us to treat children thoughtlessly

We must start looking at our children as individual entities, and not treat them like our properties. As parents, giving birth to a child and being able to bring them to earth is a blessing and not a ticket to treating them with violence.

Children are unfortunate victims of everyone’s misdirected anger. Parents vent their workplace and personal annoyances towards their children. Violence against children cannot be justified, even by their parents.

Teachers direct their pent-up frustrations from home and overwork by shouting at their students. Just because children are too young and won’t be able to give it back, people are misusing their powers as parents, teachers, and family members older than them.

I feel strict laws with strict action should be made for child’s safety in schools as well as at home.

Parents as well as teachers should be asked to sign agreements for the well-being of the child. The violation of these in any form should have strict actions against the parents, as they should be held accountable for such things.

Image source: Neena Majumdar from Studio India, free on CanvaPro

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