Shinichi Suzuki, on retraining a bad attitude in a child--
"Scolding does no good and should be avoided....the whole household would do no more grumbling but that we all would have to display better manners and conduct in our daily life. 'If we create such an environment, Koji [the child who had a bad attitude and had been scolded] will, without noticing it, become a good child, and his life will not be harmfully distorted by scolding.'"
This is certainly good food for thought in assessing parenting and the atmosphere we create in our homes. Are manners and good conduct hopelessly old-fashioned, or do they serve a purpose? I submit that in a home where people do try to display manners and good conduct to each other, the children absorb this by osmosis. That is not to say it doesn't take years of polite correction to get a child to practice good manners, but that all the scolding and training in the world is useless unless we as parents are willing to 'walk the walk' in our daily lives. I also believe that I should correct my children with a kind, gentle attitude, and not by yelling, scolding or acting harsh (easier said than done sometimes, right? We are all human....) and I try to do this each day. The more practice I get the more naturally it comes to be able to correct and guide my children without losing my own cool...and *they* notice this and take it to heart.
One of my little mottoes is to treat your guests like family and your family like guests. This fits in nicely with that and provides inspiration to continue trying to live that out in our family life!
Once again, Shinichi Suzuki's advice goes beyond the music lesson!
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