Guiding Girls

ALL children need guidance, preferably from their parents and family members. They need adults to bring out the best in them while teaching morals, discipline, values and fairness. Although these attributes seem basic, many children’s needs go unnoticed during childhood due to adult unawareness, or they are too busy to implement and follow through with systems.

There are several levels to raising children; apart from food, clothes and shelter, their physical, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual needs should be initiated by adults. If they are to grow into sensible, level-headed young women, girls especially need guidance.

Girl guidance should begin in infancy with the correct amount of attention and encouragement from caring parents. They should encourage healthy risk-taking and not limit their daughter’s ability to explore or stifle her character. Girls need room to make choices and to discover the world under their parent’s watchful eyes.

Girls should not be stereotyped; their toys can be gender-neutral. They must mix with other children to build social and emotional skills and, of course, be corrected if they do not grasp concepts, such as sharing and taking turns. Some adults say, ‘oh, it’s only a child, she doesn’t understand,’ but children have a good understanding even when they cannot talk. Be firm and consistent in your correcting. Let your daughter understand there is a time for fun, a time to play and a time when you are serious.

During the foundation years (0 – 5), children learn a lot about sharing and caring from interacting with pals. Their socio-emotional development teaches them to have concern for peers and helps them understand how their actions affect others. As mentioned earlier, some primary attributes like these are overlooked in the grand scheme of childhood. For this reason, parental guidance and the monitoring of children are priorities.

Empower your daughter to be brave and talk out if something is wrong or against what she knows to be just or fair. Help her to be an independent thinker and not follow or rely on others for validation. Safeguard her by creating a network of trustworthy, reliable people (preferably family members, grandparents, aunts etc.) with whom your daughter will be safe and ensure they are on the same page when it comes to nurturing and disciplining. There should not be double-standard or mixed messaging in different settings. Your daughter should grow feeling safe and secure, loved and appreciated by her family circle and close friends and relatives.

Loving and appreciating a child means looking out for her welfare and arming her with the necessary qualities and resourcefulness to navigate an unpredictable terrain (the world). Once grown, she will leave to make life on her own. Will she have the integrity, resilience and courage to make it in the world? Plus, the patience, sincerity, and understanding to endure its highs and lows?

Help girls to be assertive by teaching them coping and problem-solving skills. Talk through your daughter’s problems and get her to voice or write down ideas for solving them – even if you have the answers, let her exercise and develop her problem-solving skills naturally. Research suggests that women express emotions more frequently than men. They also tend to internalize emotions such as anxiety and sadness.

Parents can encourage girls to manage their emotions by getting them to explain how they feel and why. Let them identify the feelings, what caused them, and their reaction to the situation. Help them find ways to ease their mind? Having a strategy to release emotional tension in girls could help cut down on the self-harm that some pre-teens and adolescent girls are prone to when under stress or feeling anxious.

Girls are inclined to be promiscuous if not given clear guidance and attention from adults and parents, especially when they reach puberty. To prevent STI’s and unwanted pregnancies, parents must discuss reproduction and the importance of abstinence with their daughters. Explain why waiting to enjoy the fullness of a loving relationship with a partner is always the safer option.

One of the most critical aspects of ‘guiding girls’ is their father figure – a father plays an essential role in his daughter’s life; no one can overlook this fact. A healthy, father-daughter relationship can build a girl’s confidence and help her to shape a positive self-image. Fathers provide a feeling of emotional and physical security for children.

The communication channels between father and daughter must be established from infancy and kept open as she grows. The sincerer and more genuine the relationship between them, the more self-assured the daughter will naturally be. Her father will influence and shape her opinion of other men, and from him, she will learn how men treat women.
When your daughter becomes a well-mannered young woman, who is considerate, honest, shows compassion, intellect and flexibility, you know that guiding her is worth it in the long run. Don’t give up on children.

CHILD PROTECTION WEEK
Theme: Together, let’s keep children safe
Child Protection Week takes place every year to raise public awareness of the plight faced by abused children in Guyana. People have a moral and civil responsibility to protect children by reporting abuse to the Childcare and Protection Agency (CPA). Communities especially can hear and see what is happening in families and need to be proactive rather than turn a blind eye; leaving children to suffer. This year Child Protection Week is from Sunday 19th September until Saturday 25th. The Childcare and Protection Agency, Ministry of Human Services and Social Security earnestly ask the public to get involved in child protection.

If you are concerned about the welfare of a child, call the CPA hotline on 227 0979 or write to us at childcaregy@gmail.com
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHILDCARE AND PROTECTION AGENCY,
MINISTRY OF HUMAN SERVICES AND SOCIAL SECURITY

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