How to prepare your child for quality living and high achievement
Q: How can I make sure I’m educating my children to fully prepare them to live a quality life? Is it better to look for courses or just let the child choose what he or she wants to do?
In a highly competitive world, it is a good idea for parents to equip their children early for quality living, high achievement, and pluralism in career orientation. However, such a task can appear daunting when the framework is so vague. That is because what constitutes quality living and high achievement might vary depending on an individual’s outlook and approach to society, academics, and careers. It is imperative, therefore, to first define what parents should aim for in their children’s preparation. After that, finding ways to educate them for it becomes much clearer and easier.
What constitutes quality living?
No matter an individual’s ambition and aspirations, quality of living has a universal aspect if defined properly. According to research, quality of living is derived from five different dimensions of wellbeing: physical, material, emotional, social, and development and activity.
As a parent, what you should aim for is to equip your child with the skills and mindset to strive for high quality in all five dimensions listed. How is each one defined?
Physical well-being implies having a healthy body. Teaching your child to care for and properly nourish their body is quintessential in achieving a high quality of life. Research has shown that a proper, balanced diet that is heavy in vegetables, legumes, and fruit and very light in animal products or processed food is ideal for the prevention of most diseases, longevity, and even enhanced brain functioning. As a parent, teaching your child to enjoy and follow this kind of diet without giving them a sense of deprivation is key.
Material well-being implies having the capacity to satisfy an individual’s basic material needs, which often translates to having a high-enough income to cover expenses for necessities, recreation, and unforeseeable events (such as emergencies). As a parent, teaching your child healthy financial and monetary habits is essential to setting them on the path to financial security.
Emotional well-being implies having mindfulness of one’s emotions, both positive and negative, the ability to communicate them to oneself and others, and the ability to handle and control them through adaptive mechanisms and habits. To help your child develop adaptive habits that lead to emotional well-being, teach them necessary soft skills that are vital not only for emotional well-being, but also for a successful career later in life: good communication skills, stress management, anger management, crisis management and flexibility, critical thinking, and advocacy skills will help your child be mindful of their own emotions and feel in control of their own environment, which further leads to better emotional health.
Social well-being is closely linked to emotional well-being, and refers to the individual’s ability to be functional and constructive within society. Being able to relate and be valued by one’s social circle is important. The good news is that the same skill set that achieves emotional well-being can help your child achieve social well-being, which, in practice, refers to their ability to have positive and constructive relationships with others. Teach your child to be giving to society, such as taking up volunteer work (especially volunteer work that offers vital training, such as with the Red Cross) and to offer help when possible.
Development and activity implies having a lifestyle that is not sedentary or completely sedentary. Instead, individuals lead active lives with various sports, action-oriented events, and experiences that require them to move and exercise. Individuals who engage in active tasks see enhancement in all other dimensions of their quality of life; therefore it is important to teach your child to always include exercise and action-oriented activities in their life.
Quality of life and education
All of the described dimensions that account for quality of life involve teaching important skills. Most of these tend to be taught in a non-academic or semi-academic environment if classes of any sort are involved at all. It is important that as a parent you teach your child these skills by example as well as by enrolling them in various classes, activities, and courses that teach the different skill sets.
Beyond that, there is also the academic aspect. To ensure an enriching environment and proper cognitive development for your child, make sure to expose them in as varied and pluralistic an education as possible. As a parent, it is highly recommended to allow your child to choose what they want to do, but also enroll them in other varied courses.
Children have little experience in different fields of knowledge and may be swayed by impression or modelling, so make sure you give your child their own experiences in the different sciences, arts, and humanities to allow them to develop their cognitive abilities as well as their innate interests and talents.
Do not fall into the trap of teaching your child to look upon any single field as lesser than the other, because that may undermine later critical thinking skills as well as their adaptability and flexibility. In a world where interdisciplinary approaches are considered better and more successful in academics and the workplace, teaching your child to appreciate all sciences and arts is vital.
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