Thought for the Week, with Aaron Mirkin

At ever younger ages they are exposed to impressions and experiences that shock them and prematurely wake them up from the dreamy, imaginative world of delicate child-hood.

This is a very serious matter.

As a result of premature awakening, young people are growing up with increasingly complex nervous disorders.

They are becoming less and less able to cope with disappointment, or emotional upsets, and less and less able to cultivate and nurture meaningful human relationships.

Our little children are like sponges.

They take in everything they experience from the environment around them - movements, gestures, noises, music, speech, mannerisms, habits, etc.

It is not unusual to see a little child imitating the people and animals, and even the cars, machines and technology around them.

This works deep into the innocent, unfolding psyche of the child and we would do well to consider what we would like our children to imitate and what we would prefer them not to imitate, for it lays the foundations for the nervous life and feeling life of the child in later life.

This imitation is not only true for the outer experiences of the little child, but even more so for all the invisible things that the child experiences around them.

Things we often don’t even think about, such as the mood of the people around them, the moral quality of the words and actions of the people around them, the attitude that the parents and teachers have to life, etc.

It makes a huge difference to the unfolding psyche of the little child whether the words and deeds they meet around them are dishonest or truthful, whether they express fear or trust, whether they are cold and intellectual or whether they are filled with warmth and imagination, whether they are judgmental or loving.

One loving and understanding adult in a child’s life is all it takes!

Just one adult who knows how to set a worthy example of true humanity!

Let us never forget this every time we are with a child!