The Top Five things that every child needs taking for granted that food, water and oxygen are necessary for any child.

Love

Let’s start with a simple one. Receiving love is fundamental to our well-being. Love gives us a base from which we build our self-worth as a child. Being loved implicitly tells us we are worthwhile. Love is warm and embracing. The absence of love can be immensely destructive to a child and their development. Learning to love others does in a large part come from how we are loved ourselves

Patience

“How many times have I told you……….” If you are a parent you will have said this “a million times” (and probably that one too). Children have the ability to test your patience to the limit. To learn and grow we must make mistakes. Children learn at their own pace, they will slip up and at times purely for the fun of it, they will wind you up just because they enjoy it. Patience may be a virtue but in parenting, it’s a necessity.

Trust

Trust is a two-way thing. A child’s greatest need with respect to trust is that they must trust the parent. They must trust them to love them, protect them, feed them and be consistent with them. Inconsistent parenting can cause considerable anxiety. Many children who come into care are conditioned not to trust adults as they have learned that to do so could put them at risk.

Laughter

Let’s be under no illusion, laughter is funny and funny is laughter. The world is intrinsically funny when you are young (although I still find it funny now). Life gets so serious when we are old, doesn’t it? Childhood should be full of fun and laughter. If nothing else it releases happy hormones and can be a great source of family bonding. For those of you adults that pretend to be grown up, just remember having wind is funny to a child and it’s still funny to you too so just let it out

Education

Education comes in many forms. Access to formal education is an obvious one, but learning happens everywhere and always. So much of the social development of the child comes from the mirroring of the behaviour of their parents. Days out, holidays, trips, discussions all form aspects of learning. A child will never stop learning, the challenge of course for parents is that they are learning the right things and not the negative ones.