Add parenting to the curriculum

I have three kids. Though that’s not as many as compared to those of other families, they can really get on my nerves sometimes, especially when they fight. And during those times, they do not only consume the energy I reserved for “quality time” but also whatever strength I have left from a hard day at work. Those times can be challenging, especially when you have used up all your patience and the techniques you’ve read in books to supposedly make things better don’t work.

I wonder why parenting is never taught in schools. We are taught science when only a few become scientists and math when only a handful become accountants. But parenting? Most of us are likely to become a parent in the future. So I suppose that if there is one subject that needs to be added to the school curriculum, it is on how to become a good parent. Why? Because we should not entrust such a delicate subject to just about anyone (including ourselves) and expect to pass with flying colors. And we definitely cannot leave how our children will turn out in the future to chance. Because I believe that, although there are several factors involved in raising a child, there is a right way, a better way, of parenting, than what we have all been accustomed to.

There is just too much to learn in becoming a good parent that when I look at the lives of my parents and in-laws I realize I still fall short of what they have done for me and for my wife. They survived without much help; but times have changed. So I hope to be given enough years to be appreciated not only in my chosen field of work but most especially by my children. In the end, it is our children who will judge us whether we have lived a fruitful life or not. It is our children who will share our life stories. How we parents will be remembered will depend on them.

ROMARIO RAMOS, [email protected]