Tips for parents: omen for your child

I wrote my 8 Tips for Parents article a while back, and I just wanted to share one of those tips today called “Omen.” I borrowed this literary term to describe the exercise of narrating your child’s future. This is basically a technique that gives your child something to aim for. In other words, it gives them a direction or a path to follow, and the upside of this is that you are the one leading the way.

There is no doubt that parental expectations can be a powerful motivator, especially in the early years. In the energy medicine system, this omen is happening all the time and can be very helpful if harnessed and used correctly.

Let’s take an example of preparing for school. This is a significant milestone around age 5. It includes the novelty of the school with its rules, order and social scene. At the same time, it implies the necessary absence of you as a parent, as your child enters the long process of being educated through the school system. By foreshadowing what will happen when your child first enters school, you can essentially prepare your child in advance. This may take the form of statements directly to your child or to others. It can take the form of actions, such as visiting the school itself, going to the playground, or perhaps meeting with teachers or the principal. These preparatory steps are basically a harbinger to your child of what school will be like.

I often recommend that parents make statements like, “I wonder what you’re going to learn in kindergarten.” or “How many friends do you think you will make in your first month of school?” These types of statements foreshadow the positive aspects of the scenario ahead and can make it much easier for your child to make this important adjustment.

Here are three things I want you to remember about this subject called omen:

1. Foreshadowing allows your child to tune in to his expectations of the future.

2. This means that they have something to aspire to or a path to follow.

3. Foreshadowing is best used with open, nonchalant, “I wonder” statements and questions.

Another very important tip is to use what I call “gossip”. If his son hears him talking to someone else about him, his ears will surely perk up. In the way that energy medicine sees your child, this can happen even if your child is too young to understand what he is saying. The typical scenario would be if he is on the phone with Grandma and mentions something about her child by her name. Something like “Guess how well Bobby is doing in school?” or “You should see how fast Bobby is learning to read!” These statements directed at other people, but particularly members of the extended family, can be like gold.

If you use this technique, I am optimistic that you will see your child respond to new or stressful situations in a calmer and more confident manner. So consider foreshadowing as a technique you can use whenever you see an opportunity to prepare your child for the near or far future. Give it a try and let me know what kind of results you get.