Recently, a number of parents texted me to let me know that their child had passed their 11+ grammar school exam.
As always, I was incredibly elated and felt so proud of their children.
Hearing from these parents instantly took me down memory lane and I began to ponder about all of the children I’ve taught and the differences (and similarities) in the way their parents had raised them.
As I thought about these things, I realised there was one common thread between all of these amazing families.
All of these parents, regardless of income, race, nationality or creed, endeavoured to do things differently.
They didn’t just focus on raising smart children or creating the next Einstein. Rather, they focused on encouraging their child to be remarkable in every area of life.
This common trait of raising remarkable children struck a chord with me and I realised that it was the one thing that many parents miss out on.
Nowadays, life is so competitive that in order for children to excel, they can’t just be good or average, they need to be remarkable.
So, as a parent, how do you go about making your child remarkable and what does that involve?
I’ll share advice directly from these parents in an upcoming blog post but for now, I’ll leave you with a few thoughts.
One of the most important factors in raising remarkable children is to fuel their existing talents and gifts. Parents can do this through a mix of positive parenting and gentle but firm discipline. Nonetheless, the greatest influence on remarkability is simply spending quality time with your child.
I see so many parents who hand their child off to nannies and au pairs because they simply don’t want to deal with them. Sometimes it’s because they’re too busy or they have plenty of other things to do. However, my observation over the years has been that parents who spend quality time with their child raise the most incredible children.
I feel so passionately about this topic that I’m making a commitment to speak to remarkable parents and encourage them to share their advice.
Stay tuned for my next few blog posts where I’ll be talking about this in more detail.