Do you have a jack-of-all-trades in your home?

Teach your child to master the art of perfection and perseverance.

It is natural for a child to show multiple interests and passions in the early years. Your daughter might want to join a karate class because her neighbour does so. She might leave it halfway due to a sudden interest in Kuchipudi dance. One fine day she may just walk out of the dance class and plan an exploratory holiday to Kulumanali. While these shifts in interests should be tolerated in the initial years, children should be also told to pursue certain passions for a logical period. They have to be taught to excel in whatever they do, be it dance, music, karate or trekking. Here are tips for parents about the ways for inculcating perseverance in children.

Concentrate on quality

Try to streamline your child's passions. It does not mean that you discourage or demoralize your child. Multiple interests are always welcome, as they give fine exposure to the child. However, let the child not learn to keep things unfinished. For example, if your son has left his gymnasium course unfinished, you have every reason not to give him money for any other class in the near future. Ask him to view his interests seriously.

Help them find their interests

Teach your child to tap his or her personal interests. Sometimes children pursue certain interests due to many extraneous reasons like peer pressure, fashion, momentary whims. They are too young to distinguish between their own feelings. Therefore, parents have to help them take certain decisions. As psychology claims that a child is bound to excel in a field only and only if he or she is
interested.

No substitute to hard work

Be it a hobby or a passion or a liking, your child must be mentally and physically prepared to rough out the hard labour involved in it. Parents have to teach the child to remain consistent while following a curriculum/course/assignment/hobby. For instance, your son might enjoy trekking and mountaineering. But you have to ask him whether he is ready to get up early in the morning and start out for an ambitious expedition.

Do not complete a project for your child

If your child fails to achieve a target or finish an assignment, never do it yourself. In this manner, the child will never learn to accomplish the task on time. Meeting deadlines is an important aspect of a growing child's life.

Give your child proper incentives

This does not mean gifts, bribes or money. Incentives mean proper motivation. For instance, motivate your daughter by telling her how good she will look on stage during her dance performance or how wonderful her bedroom will look after she completes the wall hanging that she is working on.

Consistency is a virtue in any field

Children associate perfection and mastery only with difficult tasks like mountaineering or karate or carpentry. But perfection is needed in anything that one does at any point of time. Even a simple cross-stitch embroidery needs wholehearted concentration and interest. It is no less a task than archery, swimming or architecture.

Be patient

Do not be too pushy or critical, as this will damage the child's self-image. Perfection and perseverance do not come easily even to adults. Therefore do not expect your child to be consistent at a very early age. He or she is bound to leave some tasks incomplete. But as you groom the child, perseverance will become second nature to the child. It will become a way of life.