When a Child Feels Loved

Today is an excellent opportunity for me to talk about one of my favorite subjects--raising kids. An essential element of responsive parenting is the quality of the interactions between the child and the parent. How responsive the parent is to the child’s needs is critical. If the parent uses encouragement, praise, and physical affection, it dramatically affects the child. Children who receive parental warmth tend to engage less in antisocial behavior. When children and teens feel valued, accepted, and loved, they are more inclined to internalize parental values and attitudes.  

When a child feels loved, he will feel special. God communicated that special love to Israel by referring to them as the apple of his eye (Deut. 32:10). A child shown through her parents’ love that she is unique will develop healthy self-esteem.

Children develop cognitive and emotional capabilities early in life primarily due to observing their parents. When children see such behaviors as helping, sharing, and serving, they internalize and use them, just as they internalize bad behavior of lying, disrespect, and defiance. When mom and dad disrespect each other, the kids will imitate this. You may have heard them pretending to be grown up, and your conversations and actions are played out.

Most of a child’s behaviors are acquired through the daily exchanges of the household between the children and the parents. There is greater acceptance of correction when a parent explains the reason for implementing a new behavior for the child. Behavior modification that functions on a reward system works for tiny children. Still, as the children get older, they need clear explanations that make sense from their parents. The more cooperative the co-parenting style is between the mother and father, the better the children will feel about themselves and the more respectful and better they will feel toward other people.

The emotional development of the child will positively impact their social relationships later in life. The result of a consistent, responsive parenting style, which is strong on warmth, clear communication, and control, solves problem behavior much faster by helping to eliminate confusion with clarity and make the child feel accepted.