myHK: Parenting Mistakes Hong Kong Edition
These three points are more focussed on toddlers in Hong Kong, but feel free to apply them to whoever you want !!
1. Walking the Kid
If you haven’t noticed already, you will after reading this! So many parents in Hong Kong walk their children, rather than walk with them.
Luckily for everyone, a lead is not (usually) involved.
It’s very easy to spot this scenario because the parent has a firm grip of the child’s wrist rather than walking hand in hand. The child is lead from place to place and might as well have his or her eyes closed on the way because zero thoughts are neccessary for this trip. The child simply gets pulled and dragged between and around people.
Basically this boils down to a lack of patience by the parent. Children obviously need to learn to think for themselves and work together with others.
You can’t drag your kids around forever! Or can you…. ?
2. Get back here!
At the playground yesterday I saw this one mulitiple times, and I have to admit it really makes me laugh. I’m talking about the kids at the playground who are dominating their parents time and time again. The 2 year old who darts away at the playground, laughing and looking back at his panicked parent chasing after him. The mom catches him, gives him a small shake and powerful lecture, but before she can finish her speech, he is off sprinting again! So she chases him, and the cycle continues.
If someone were to chase me and follow me everywhere I went, I’d be the happiest guy around! I’d zig zag, hop and randomly jog everywhere. It’d be amazing because I’d have this mirror behind me following my every move! How cool would that be?!
Now, if he stopped following me, I’d be a grown adult hopping and running in circles all by myself… That wouldn’t last long…
It’s the same for the toddler. When you’re in a safe and secure place like the playground or park, it’s the perfect opportunity to let your child roam. Pretending that you’re not bothered while keeping the corner of your eye directly on him or her. Perhaps even duck behind a tree for a minute. Teach the importance of coming back to you and staying close to you by example rather than through just words.
3. You’re not friendly
Personally, I find Hong Kong to be a very unfriendly city, at times. It’s a place where you can be living next to someone for years, yet never speak. And when you do bump into eachother, saying hi is just too much of a burden.
As a parent, I believe one job I have is to teach my daugher social responsibility. One part of that which is often forgotten in HK is respect for others and being a kind and friendly member of society. I feel that saying good morning and thank you to the doorman who helps her everyday is essential. Amongst other things, I also encourage her to say hi to people in our apartment’s lift, rather than just staring at them.
The benefits of teaching such kindness and the importance of being friendly are immeasurable, increasing confidence, consideration and selflessness.
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Know what you mean about HK being an unfriendly place. It’s not exactly a rude place for the most part, I’ve been to far worse places and I like HK a lot. But people do seem to be quite cold much of the time. Good for you instilling friendliness in the next generation and hopefully more will do so.
Thanks Ray
I must say that during this OccupyCentral Umbrella Revolution, ive seen the best of Hong Kongers. In one evening at the peaceful sit in protest, i had multiple people say, “excuse me” to me. I was quite shocked!
Cheers Ray! Have a good one!
MrJ
I did see that in HK, children being “led” by their parents. I think that is at least better than what I sometimes see in urban areas here, where parents are walking along and the child is just mindlessly following along and the parent will turn, give a scowl then say “you better keep up now”. That seems to me even a bit less caring.
Hey Brielle,
Yes thats the other extreme i guess.
Gotta shoot for in between 😉
Cheers!