Ahead Of National Children's Day, Momentum For Parents Appreciating What Children Have Achieved

Illustration of children playing with their parents in the park using masks. (Antara-Jessica Helena)

PURWOKERTO - Academic from Jenderal Soedirman University (Unsoed) Purwokerto Wisnu Widjanarko said National Children's Day (HAN) which falls on July 23 is the right momentum to strengthen communicative parenting between parents and children.

"National Children's Day 2022 is the right momentum to improve communicative parenting, with good communication patterns," he said when contacted from Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Saturday, July 16.

The lecturer in family communication at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP) at Jenderal Soedirman University said that communicative parenting promotes dialogue, where parents and children need to take time to listen to each other and share stories.

"Parents need to be prepared to listen to their child's perspective and vice versa, of course, by always looking at the age and mental development of the child," he said.

He added that parents need to be assertive or get used to conveying what they want, what they feel, and what they think to their children while still using good methods and respecting the child's feelings.

"That's why good communication skills are needed, so that parents can continue to be supportive and appreciative when their child achieves an achievement, as well as provide corrections and explanations when children do things that are not right," he said.

This balance, he said, is very important, so that children understand how to move, have self-confidence and know the limits that should not be exceeded.

"The most important thing is that parents can appreciate what their children have achieved, explore their potential, encourage children when they have not achieved what they want and always accompany every process that children go through while still giving space to children as individuals," he said.

The mentoring process, according to him, needs to be done wisely so that the message to be conveyed can be well received by the child without feeling intervened.

"Because if it is not done wisely, children can have the perception that parents are too intervening, so that children can misunderstand what parents mean, and with mistakes, what is feared is conflict," he said.

He also said that HAN is a good momentum to strengthen interactions between family members.

Thus, he said, family members can understand each other, care for each other and support each other's qualities.

"Communication in the family is very important, because the smallest institution in the order of social life is a school of life that enables every member in it to learn to improve their quality," he said.