RESPECTThe true road to infant security and a healthy

relationship with the child in your care.

IMAGINE… … you are upset and someone thrusts a spoon in your

mouth.

… you are angry and someone grabs you and strips your clothes off you.

… you are sleepy, happy and content until someone grabs you and puts you in a cot.

NOW IMAGINE… … how you would feel if someone explained

you were hungry and they were going to give you something to eat now.

… how you would feel if someone explained you were wet and they were going to change you out of the wet clothes.

... How you would feel if someone explained you were sleepy and they were putting you into a warm bed.

This is what it means to show respect to an infant. In a world where infants have little to no control over their environment, it is up to us to give them the opportunity to understand that we are there to care for them, that we understand their emotions, and we hear them.

Respect is what gives them a chance to understand and to learn from their environment.

Respect is something we like to teach; respect for our elders, respect for the environment, respect for our selves. It is unfortunate, however, that what we rarely teach a child is that we respect them in turn.

We want to model respect to our children and the first step is remembering to show respect to them.

First, we need to make sure that the environment we have in place for our child is appropriate, that they can play safely, with small risks that can build in skills and in self esteem.

We need to make sure that there is space for the children to learn and play and for us to nurture them and care for them.

We need to teach our children respect by talking to them. When we are changing diapers, we should be telling the child what we are doing, giving them the respect of an explanation when they don’t know what is happening in their world.

Not only does this give the child our respect, but it helps to build a solid child/caregiver relationship, when we take these small built in moments to give them our full attention.

When feeding time comes around, by talking to our children we allow them the time to prepare for what is to come. This is the simplest and best way to show our children that we respect and care for them.

Every time we talk to our children before we do something to them, we teach them respect.

Respect begins and ends with what we teach. We need to make sure we are giving our children not only the physical care they need, but that we are reaching out to their social and emotional needs as well.

Emotionally understood babies are much happier babies.

Imagine what sort of happy, healthy children we could be encouraging if we all just taught a little more respect.