There is no universally accepted way of parenting, over the years I have seen people write books on parenting.
Most times the authors simply expresses his or her view on parenting. This is a very delicate topic, it has caused a lot of controversies over time.
I was having a discussion with a friend. I asked him how his business was going and the welfare of his family. I was impressed with the progress he has made over the years. He then told me that he was not happy with the academic performance of his seven years old son. This got my attention. I asked him "what is his problem ?",to my greatest surprise he replied "I don't know". He went further to tell me how much he pays as school fees. I was shocked at the amount. He then said "I pay so much for his school fees, so I expect him to perform well in school". I asked him if he had met with his son's teacher to find out what could be the problem. He told me he had met with the teacher. According to him the teacher said his son needs assistance,that he needs someone to revise what he was taught in school at home.
To me that was not a problem. But my friend said he has no time to do revision with his son at home and his wife too is always busy.He insisted that it is the duty of the school to teach his son to understand, after all he is paying them a huge sum of money.
I tried talking to him to let him understand that he also has a role to play in his son's education. Well for me I believe that paying school fees for our children is not enough, we have to also put in some effort by revising their school work with them at home.
We can also spend some time to read with them. I remember my uncle telling me some years back that anytime he wanted to read a magazine, he would ask his children to bring their note books or textbooks to read along with him. After an hour he would tell his children what he read from the magazine.He will also ask his children to summarize what they had read from their textbooks or notebooks.This method helped his children in reading and it became a part of them.
As parents I know we are busy with work and when we get home we are all tired.But let's remember we also have a role to play in our children's academics.The teacher at school can only do a little but we parents have a great influence on our children. When your child knows that when Daddy comes back from work he will ask him what he or she learnt in school,the child will always be conscious and ready to study hard.Our children always want to please us.
We as parents must also learn to reward good academic performance by our children. This will help spur them up for better performance. As parents let us not underestimate are roles in our children's academic performance.