I asked ChatGPT to list the top 20 things parents worry about, to get ideas for future columns. It struck me how many things parents are concerned about.
In my book, "Unison Parenting," I present a simpler way to categorize these concerns, called the Gingerbread Person. Your child is growing in five ways: mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and socially. As I looked at ChatGPT's list, nearly every item could be sorted into one or more of these categories.
Here is how I see each of these areas:
The mental component: First being able to comprehend, retain, ponder, and extrapolate information. Being able to make good decisions based on that information.
The physical component: Dealing with the body’s health, fitness, composition. On a simple level, the physical component is governed by diet and exercise.
The spiritual component: Having and abiding by a set of moral values. In our context, this means primarily deriving those moral values from Christian precepts.
The emotional component: This may have more to do with mental health than the mental component. In the emotional component, one learns how to become aware of emotions, deal with emotions, express and control emotions.
The social component: It is how a person reacts to and interacts with other people. This component can be highly affected by the environment the person is in.
As a parent, we want to develop each of these five areas in our children. A parent who attends to all five areas is more likely to produce a well-balanced individual capable of handling adulthood well.
With your parenting partners, consider your current and preferred approach for each of these five areas. Join in unison on how you'll go forward with each of your children, as they will likely each have different needs in these areas. I'll share ideas and tips for each area over the course of future blog posts.
In my next blog post, I want to deal with the misconception that a child grows like a gingerbread person, expanding in equal proportions in all areas. In reality, your child is more like an irregular amoeba, which can be very confusing to parents. I'll discuss that topic next Thursday.
Comments