The first gentle touch you ever experience, the first pat on the back, the first lap you sleep soundly in. The importance of mother starts even before we meet the world as we lie snuggled in her womb. The importance of father never ends as he helps remove hurdles from our path even when we grow up and grow old.
Your parents are the first people you see, they teach you how to think, react or emote. The tender care, the safe pair of hands, the care your mother and father shower on you since childhood is pure love and affection.
Most of our cherished events happen under their care. Remember that first day in school when we ventured out for the first time, clutching their hands tightly. And then, when school got over, we waited anxiously for them. Their assurance, love and the safe haven called home lay the foundation of positive emotions and robust psychological development for us. Our early experiences with our mother and father formed the framework of our personality and life. The importance of family becomes evident in the way we feel, think, act and make choices.
Here, Soulveda outlines the significance of family in our wellbeing and positive mental health.
Mother is the universe of emotional intelligence
A child’s first, natural and biological connection to this world is the mother. The importance of mother is beyond the description of words, yet it is paramount to express one’s gratitude as our positive mental health is because of their unconditional love as caregivers. It is vital for the constructive development of one’s mind and is very important in those formative years when one’s brain is growing and recording every feeling and emotion. Those initial threads of emotional attachment offer a lifetime of mental support, helping build a positive outlook in life and a confident personality.
We have seen our mothers and many other maternal individuals like aunts and grandparents doing multiple things – handling a crying baby, caring for our wounds, singing a lullaby to the young ones to make them sleep with great prowess.. It is this empathy of our mothers that help develop trust that’s essential for our mental wellbeing. Our mothers’ biggest contribution to our positive mental health is the delight she brings in doing small things with dedication and care daily, preparing us to take on any challenge in life, big or small with our chin up.
The importance of family finds its roots in our mothers, who build not just their offspring but an entire household with their resilience, kindness and unconditional love. These are the very things that nurture us as a child and make us secure and positive as adults.
Father is the fountainhead of wisdom
The importance of father is unique in a person’s life. The father’s presence provides a child with a sense of protection like no other. This feeling of safety makes you confident that whatever may be the situation, you will always prevail. A secure mind, built lovingly by the father over the years, brings in confidence and long lasting positivity in your mental health. His presence and support has also been observed as significant for cognitive faculty and development of social skills; these being crucial for a happy state of mind when faced with real life situations.
Your father is your gateway to the sea of humanity, teaching you the code of conduct for constructive social behaviour and confident engagement with worldly affairs. Fathers play a dual role in the healthy development of the child’s mental abilities by being an able role model as well as an all rounder, entertaining and teaching life lessons in tandem.
Fathers build in us the capability of being respectful and honourable towards others by exhibiting the same. Fathers carrying children on their shoulders, is not plain fun – it actually changes the world view of children. Fathers also help develop an alternate thinking in kids, supporting them in solving problems and adding value to their inherent wisdom – things you need to stay ahead in this complex world.
The ocean of depth and mental strength
Mother Teresa known for her tireless efforts towards the orphans of the world once said, “If you want to bring happiness to the whole world, go home and love your family.” The importance of family can not be described better.
Just like an ocean, you can have huge waves lashing on the surface, but deep down under the ocean, it is serene, calm and very, very strong. Holding the beauty of life well preserved even under darkness and extreme cold, the ocean prevails any onslaught. That is what family is. It not just defines you as a person, it makes you the kind of personality that is stable yet powerful no matter what the challenge.
Family is that framework which provides stability in the times of emotional upheavals.
Family a cushion for your stress
Most of us have fond memories of the long wait at the railway station as we headed to our grandparents’ house for the summer vacations. The train journey, the stay at our extended family’s home, the meals and the love, there is no comparing that to anything we experience as an adult.
It has been seen that bigger the support system, better is the mental development in humans. Family is critical as it improves our wellbeing through affection, enhances self-esteem with appreciation and makes us resilient to cope with stresses of life. The emotional security and feeling of being loved and provided by the family positively impacts our social communication skills as well.
The unwritten promise of a family’s commitment towards its young helps them develop relationships that they can trust. The familial support system encourages the development of values and responsibility too. As most experts will share, families teach children positive behaviour and balanced decision making by executing the same.
It may sound like a cliche but the importance of the mother and the father can really not be enumerated but it suffices to say they provide us with the framework to lead mentally and physically healthy lives.