The foundation of children’s emotional health lies in the relationship that develops over the years, between them and their parents. How so?
I am not sure how many of you heard the story behind the new movie, “The Soloist”. It is a moving story about a chance encounter between a homeless guy name Nathaniel Ayers and a journalist, Steve Lopez that happened few years ago.
In this story, Steve heard a piece of music written by Beethoven played by a homeless person in LA. The music, beautifully played caught his attention and made him stopped his hurried walk. He was curious; the music sounded so beautiful even though the homeless guy played on a violin with 2 strings only. Steve was interested enough and started asking him questions and Nathaniel’s remarkable and sad life story started to unfold eventually became a book and a movie.
This story reminds me of another related but diametrically opposite. Joshua Bell , a world famous violinist, was part of a social experiment about perception. One afternoon he played six Bach pieces incognito at the metro station in DC. Nobody stopped to listen, other than a few young kids who were quickly dragged away by their hurried parents.
A night before that experiment, Joshua Bell played the same pieces to a full house in Boston were the cheapest ticket was $100.
What do these two stories have in common and how are the related to our immediate life as parents?
The foundation of children’s emotional health lies in the relationship that develops over the years, between them and their parents . Research shows over and over again that parents who are attentive and responsive to their children’s emotional needs as well as express love, joy and curiosity when interacting with them, will help their children develop trust in themselves and the world around them. This will build their sense of emotional security.
In our hurried world of today, it is not often easy to pay attention as it requires us to slow down. But like in the stories shared above, imagine how much we miss in our everyday interaction if we don’t stop and listen!
Written by Yaffa Maritz
