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Do you know your parenting style? What kind of parent are you?

Heck, you don’t know? Don’t worry, it’s easy to find out by taking the following parenting style quizzes:

1) Parenting Style Quiz – About.com
2) Do You Know Your Parenting Style? – ChildrenToday.com

Basically there are three types of parenting style. But we think that you should not get too hung up with the results from the quiz as what matters most is how you help your child to be the best based on his capabilities. Not so much which style you belong to.

So have fun finding out your parenting style!
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When you know that your child is not good at doing certain things (sometimes it’s just so darn obvious), would you tell him that he’s just not born with the skill? Or you give him a praise to motivate him instead.

Will praises help your kid to become a smarter child? A research shows that it’s not necessarily true. Telling your child is smart will sometimes backfire.

What I will do is to tell him the truth. Everyone of us is born with certain talents and strengths. We can do certain things better and more easily than others. That’s a fact. I will ask my child to focus on his strengths and not weaknesses. Because you can’t improve weaknesses and the most you can get is an improved “weakness.” Still not a strength yet.

You know what, when your child is using his talents, he feels the joy and satisfaction. That’s what we want for our kids, right? That’s what it counts – to see our kids happy.

Unfortunately, the education systems in schools do not reflect this. The teachers want our children to be perfect in all areas. Is it possible? Yes, it is but you may need to trade off your child’s happiness, to some extent. That explains why I feel “sad and upset” when people focus so much on academic excellence. If this is true, all the professors in the universities are the most successful in the world. Which I think you know it’s not true. On the other hand, the highly successful people aren’t necessarily get the best grades at school.

So focus on your child’s talents and strengths and please don’t expect him to be perfect. Hey, nobody is perfect including you. So why would you want your child to be one anyway?

See Also…

The One Reason Why Your Child Can’t Be An All-Rounder

Raising Successful Children: An Interview with Anthony Spadafore on Nature vs Nurture

An interesting survey for New Zealand parents on "Should children be tested at primary school?" Look at the responses from parents, at a glance, they are all in favor of the tests.

We think that the idea of conducting tests to measure against own’s past results is better than against your peers’.  This creates nothing but unnecessary pressure on the children. What do you think? Do you think we should put pressure on our kids from such a young age?
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"Let's take a look at the pendants." My wife said to me when we were passing by a diamond retailer shop while we were enjoying our time together without the kids at a shopping mall.

As you might have guessed, I was reluctantly dragged into the shop. It's not that I don't like diamonds. It's the price that is killing me. And I always think diamonds are not a good investment vehicle, might as well I buy something else (like gold) if I have the spare cash. Diamonds are definitely the last on my list.

Back to the story. My wife and I were given a crash course on diamonds by the salesperson at the shop. I quickly transformed from a diamond idiot to someone who knows a little bit about diamonds. Hey, at least I know the four C's of diamonds.

It looked like I was more interested to get to know diamond than my wife. As we sailed through the training, we were unknowingly presented with top of the range diamonds available. Of course, they looked stunning and amazingly attractive, even to me!

We were cautious not to fall into the trap. I must say that my wife knew what she wanted. She was strong enough not to be swayed away.

Even though the shop did not have the design my wife loved, I think it's fair enough for my wife to have a gift of diamond. This is for her support she has been providing me, not to mention love and care, and two children that she gave birth to.

Next time, I will have no problems stopping by at any diamond shops until my wife gets what she wants… if the price is not too scary.
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I couldn’t help it but feel worried when I read about break-in incidents that not only caused the loss of valuables but more. It has become like a "trend" now the robbers really make use of the break-ins to the fullest. They now rape women like there’s no tomorrow. They are not satisfied with just the loot they get, they want more. Occasionally, they rape because what they get is not "enough." Therefore, to compensate for the not-so-much harvest, they take women and rape.

This is really getting out of hand. What if the victim was your wife or your daughter? Even though you’re a man, there’s nothing you could do when you’re at their gun/knife point but to watch the untoward incident happening right in front of your eyes. What a sad thing to happen!

My wife told me that we should keep a little bit more cash at home in case these robbers appear. I would have laughed at the idea but it makes sense though. Nowadays, it’s high time to live smart and learn more about urban survival.
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