School aged Children

As parents, we are all excited by the time that our children are old enough to go to school.  While there’s a bit of sadness there that you won’t be able to spend time with your children during the day, school is obviously a great step in your child’s development.  However, there are still some issues that come up when your children enters their school age.  To help you out, we will examine some of the parenting issues you will face with school aged children.

One of the hardest adjustments for a child is to leave the comfort of their own home and enter the world of school.  Many parents underestimate what a big step this is for their child, but just think about it.  For many children, they are leaving their home where they received a great deal of attention and entering an environment where they will be surrounded by their peers and won’t receive the special attention they get from their parents.  While a good teacher obviously works hard to make all of their students feel special and loved, it is also important for teachers not to show favoritism.

This can be a difficult adjustment for a child to face and it isn’t uncommon to find many children actively disliking school.  Many parents make the mistake of being insensitive about this transformation period in their child’s lives while other parents make the mistake of being too involved.  To help your child adjust to being in a school environment, you should discuss with your child how things will change once they enter school.  By teaching your child lessons on sharing and listening to their teacher, you will be helping them ease into this adjustment of going to school.

There are other issues that school aged children face.  It is during this part of a child’s life that they begin to listen to their peers more and more.  For many parents this is a difficult adjustment to make.  After all, even as toddlers children regard their parents as being the only authority to listen to.  However, many children change once they enter school and become concerned with such issues as being popular and fitting in with their peers.

As a parent, you have to understand your child’s concerns and help them meet their objectives.  While there may be some people your child becomes friends with that you may not like, it is important that you do not reveal your personal feelings to your child, unless it is blatantly obvious that it is in the best interest of your child to do so.  By voicing your objections to your child’s friends, you will create confusion in your child.  Many school aged children face this problem of liking a person but having to deal with their parent’s disregard of that same person.  This can cause some friction between you and your child.  You have to adjust your expectations of your child and understand that they are becoming more independent.

By nurturing this independence, you will be doing your school aged child a great favor that will pay off as they develop.  While it is important that you still remain active in your child’s life, you have to understand that your relationship with your child is changing.  Although you still have to set the boundaries of what they can and can’t do, when you are parenting school aged children, you have to slowly change your relationship with your child to nurture their budding independence.