with Your Child at Bedtime

An article from the book ‘Your Child is Your Parent’ by Manoj J Lekhi.

In the course of the day, we, parents, too, make many mistakes, knowingly or unknowingly, in handling our children. It is very important to make up for those mistakes with our children before they go to sleep.

Ensuring complete harmony in thoughts with your child before retiring for the night is of utmost importance — this is something parents must understand.

Children are in a most tender and soft frame of mind before they go to sleep. They are also very tired and normally fall off to sleep very soon. Catch them before they fall asleep. Spend some special moments with them, asking them to go over the day’s activities and thoughts. If, at any point, you feel that you have made a mistake in handling a situation with your child, do apologise to your child in the night before he goes to sleep.

Never let the child go to sleep without completing this exercise every night. This clearing of thoughts with your child is absolutely important. Make it a habit to establish perfect accord with your child every night, and he will grow up absolutely stable emotionally and will be able to handle his life very effectively.

If you learn to say sorry to your child genuinely, your child will automatically learn to do the same to you. Also, before your child goes to sleep, go over all the positives of the day, as well — all the little things the child has done properly — and also share something beautiful that happened in your life that day. Make this sharing and completion of thoughts a habit before he sleeps and you will have a wonderful child.

It’s not about completing the day with just your child, it’s about completing the day with every single person in your life. You need to reconcile with anyone whom you feel you have hurt, knowingly or unknowingly, be it your spouse, friends, relatives, boss, colleagues etc. This completion fills you with a tremendous sense of fulfillment and peace.

The child becomes an excuse for you to mentally re-establish harmony with everyone whom you have hurt during the day. Your child is your mentor for you understanding others.