After a friend had sent me this photo, I couldn’t resist the urge of making a post about it. So, Let’s start with the word TRICK. What does trick here means? It simply means making a child believe something that seems not to be true. In the above photo, you can see that the drink presented to this child is not what he was sipping. The parent’s genuine intention is to make the child take his medication, isn’t it? The truth is, no matter how it may look, trick is trick and believe me this will only last for a short period of time.
Again, when it comes to parenting, there are some things that require wisdom. In this case, this child is obviously young and may not have the mental ability to understand the importance of him taking his medication irrespective of the taste compared to an older child and every now and again, I kick against parents forcing their children to do things. I know a lot of parents will be wondering, what do you want us to do? How do I get this child to take this medication considering the fact that it’s a must-have medication and there are no two ways about it.
In this case, this child taking his medication is not negotiable because he needs to be saved from whatever illness he has. Ordinarily, no child including us adults would want to have a funny taste of medicine, but in parenting, there are some certain situations where you have to FORCE a child and that is when it has to do with life and death. It is the same thing as seeing a child in danger, in these situations, you’re permitted to YELL at your child for his safety because it’s an emergency. In an emergency, exception to rules is permitted. Same thing is applicable here.
However, there’s still a better approach to it. You won’t just grab an innocent child and immediately start forcing medicine on him. That won’t be fair and in case you find yourself doing such, please STOP IT. Every child just like adult deserve respect so, before administering the medication to your child, I’ll suggest you say things like ‘’Jonny, here’s your medicine, it doesn’t taste so nice, and is just a tiny little bit, I have got a drink of juice for you that can help get rid of the funny taste if you want”. (Please note, don’t give it to your child if he doesn’t ask for it). Even if you don’t have any juice or whatever to give, it is still important that you tell your child the truth.
When you do this, you’re typically letting your child know what is going to happen and when it does happen, your child is ready for the experience and when it does happen in the future, your child will still be ready and aware. Also, your child will learn to trust you because mummy said it had a funny little taste and it was so plus, your child will learn patience. Remember, the time it took you to explain the process to him, the patience took place.
Dear intentional parents, I believe you do not want your child to learn to say this and do that right? Because that’s lying. Remember every step, action you take, your child is watching and learning from you. Your child will be a product of who raised him. Show me a child and I’ll show you who raised him. Again, remember parenting is not for the now, but for the future.
