A mother’s worries, her anxieties, every kind of her attempt to protect her child, to offer him all the best, her thoughts of its future evolution and development… All these are just fragments of the experience I live daily in my job.
I have the ability to understand, to feel and to figure out the way to approach all these worries. I can also reassure a mother- if need be- and last but not least, I am able to awaken her when I find it necessary.
The Greek mother has learned to evolve, she has differentiated her targets compared to the past, she adapts to the new facts but at the same time, she remains the one who consistently protects her baby even when it is no longer a “baby”- at least biologically.
The Greek mother considers that she offers the best, she sacrifices her own personal life for her child, she devotes herself. It sometimes goes so far that she unwillingly ignores her owns child’s personality and needs. These needs may include autonomy, responsibility, smooth socialization and simple, creative -or not- activities.
She focuses on educational processes that may not be related to her child’s age, she is always thinking of the “future” and as a result she overlooks all these small, everyday unique moments whereas she presses to the wrong directions.
My experience, not only as a mother but also as a teacher, in combination with my accumulated knowledge, has proven to me that children which grow up in a family without stress, in any kind of a family environment, are balanced, autonomous and responsible. These families can sincerely realize the present situation that a child is just a child!
The transition to the new-world should be done with the appropriate simplicity and the corresponding awareness. The unit becomes a member of a team and as a team member it can receive both the acceptance and the rejection. Parents will not always be present to protect him – and they don’t have to. But they have to set the bases and to prepare the appropriate supportive environment. This environment should stimulate the child and prevent it from any kind of an emotional block.
When a child is mentally guided from its parents is often trapped between his parents’ satisfaction and his own needs. A child becomes less light-hearted and more restrained. It can be characterized as a quiet child. But… is it actually “A happy child?”
Anna Raftopoulou
Published at www.k-‐mag.gr, October 2012
Also in this section: a personal perspective / the adaptation / the first separation / the selection process / 13 precious advices
