13 лист 2026 р., 05:37 -
Question: A child hurts himself and bursts into tears. You shouldn’t buy him a sweet treat just to stop him from crying. Instead, you need to talk to him. Do you agree?
Answer: Yes, you need to talk to him.
Question: So you sit down and talk to him. But what can you say to a child who has hurt himself?
Answer: You should explain that he needs to be more careful, discuss why he got hurt and what happened. Explain all of this to him.
Question: I see. So you speak to him more or less as an equal?
Answer: More or less. But he should still feel that an adult is speaking to him. And he should feel that he is being taught something.
Question: Should the child understand what the adult wants from him?
Answer: The child should understand that the adult wants to explain to him how to relate properly to all kinds of circumstances in life, especially unpleasant ones.
Comment: I see. Here’s another situation: A child wanted to climb a tree, but couldn’t manage it and burst into tears. His father came over, lifted him onto the branch he wanted to reach, and the tears disappeared. Everything was fine. But psychologists say you shouldn’t do that.
My Response: Why shouldn’t you?
Comment: Because they believe the child should reach the branch on his own.
My Response: But what if he can’t? Why should you leave the child struggling? Why shouldn’t you explain anything to him? Even animals, wolves and other creatures…
Comment: They pick up their young by the scruff of the neck and lift them somewhere.
My Response: Yes, of course. They teach their young. They take them along, play with them, and teach them. What kind of psychologists have come up with these ideas?!
Comment: Apparently, there are such psychologists, as you can see. They want children to go through everything on their own, including all their sorrows.
My Response: We should treat children the way animals treat their young. They help them, explain things to them, and play together with them.
Question: Let me add another example of my own. Suppose a child is assembling a construction set and can’t figure it out. A parent comes over. Should the parent assemble it for him?
Answer: Absolutely not! No. The parent should play together with the child and, through guiding actions and questions, help him figure out what needs to be done.
You have to be a teacher. A teacher is someone who gives hints about the right solutions and explains the wrong ones, the mistakes, and so on. In other words, it’s a process of reviewing and analyzing what happened.
Comment: Here’s another situation: A child is sad. You shouldn’t rush to cheer him up by any means possible. You should allow him to experience what sadness feels like. That’s what these psychologists write.
My Response: Not sadness for the sake of sadness, but so that he knows how to come out of it and understands that such emotional states have just as much right to exist within us as happiness and joy.
Question: To summarize all of this, how would you describe the proper attitude of a parent toward a growing child?
Answer: Become his friend and do things together with him.
Question: Can you become a child’s friend at any age?
Answer: At any age.
Question: Can I be a friend to my three-year-old son?
Answer: By the age of three, it’s already too late.
Question: Too late?! 🙂
Answer: Of course, it’s too late. Starting at around one year old, a child already understands that you’re playing with him and senses how you’re playing, whether you’re treating him as an equal or not.
Question: So we should become our children’s friends?
Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 8/21/26
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