WATCH your thoughts; they become your words. Watch your words; they become your actions. Watch your actions; they become your habits. Watch your habits; they become your character.Watch your, character; it becomes your destiny.

We should try and shape our children on the above mentioned lines. Then they will be able to come up with the force of character necessary to fulfill their ambitions in life. We all have high expectations from our children and in that spirit, make them go through hectic training regimens to get them into good schools.

Once they get their admission, they are made to attend various tutorials under the care of reputed teachers. As a result, they are allowed very little time for extracurricular activities. And thus, are deprived of activity that could help build up their personalities.

Such efforts need to be appreciated but for the force of conviction, mere academic learning cannot bring in the desired results. It may not be out of place to mention here that sport, drama, music, dance and art are not mere sources of entertainment. It needs to be understood that each discipline of extracurricular activity is a discipline in itself.

Therefore, exposure to a discipline (subject) that children enjoy could help cultivate a sense of discipline. Children develop team spirit. They develop the urge to score and in that spirit they; try to remain focused on their target and put in their best effort. Once the mind is trained in a particular manner, it could be equally well applied towards academic pursuits.

Parents, however, are rarely conscious of the role that such activities could play. As a result, most children end up watching Tv; sending SMSes on their cellphones and parrtying and in the process they lose their focus on priority areas. Such unseemly behaviour on the part of our budding youth is actually acquiring worrying proportions.

By the time parents wake up to the occasion, the distracting influences confronting their children might have turned into habit. Meanwhile, children enter their teens, a time when they develop an urge for independence. And are usually not prepared to digest any counsel that might be at variance with their conveniences. At this stage, children need to be worked upon with the force of love and one should not hesitate to use counselling. A qualified counsellor might be able to work better with the child as sometimes children take their parents for granted and might not heed to their advice.

(Post Written on: 08/01/2008)