MY CHILDHOOD MATTERS

Last week while casually scrolling through my personal social media page, I came across a statement that read ‘Childhood matters more to your mental health than any other time in your life’. The potency with which that hit me was one I had not felt in a while and immediately I recognised that not only did I strongly resonate with and support the message that the aforementioned bore, but also the fact that there are more and more people; both those who are parents and as well as those who are not, needed to hear more of it. 

Childhood is a naturally sensitive stage in the life of a human being. Based on the fact that during childhood the individual’s life is at a formative stage and most of their being is still at its infancy; children need as much support and care as they can receive from their immediate physical, social and emotional environment as they can get in order to successfully maneuver through this phase of life. The word ‘support’ is used loosely here and it is vital to stress that this does not strictly refer to the basics of living; food, clothing and shelter but also a dimension of the human that is often quite overlooked at childhood: the child’s mental health.

Although a child may lack the expert ability found in adults to express themselves and put their emotions, observations and experiences into verbal form, this does not imply that they are not active participants in their environment. 

Relate

The reason, we as adults, often choose to believe the opposite of this statement is based purely on the premise that since children are not as adept as we are, they cannot relate to us (adults) as we do with each other. Furthermore, because of this, we tend to assume that the ‘physical’ aspect of the child’s development is all that there is, in the process ignoring the largest contributor to what kind of adult that child will be; the mental aspect.

What is important to note is that children in their natural state are constantly seeking cues and instructions from those tasked with taking care of them, both of which they use to navigate their environment, relate with those around them as well as develop their own skills and skill sets. Therefore, they are constantly receiving and decoding ‘messages’ in a bid to develop a wholesome understanding of the world. If these messages are pleasant, soothing, reassuring, warm and offer adequate guidance, the world around the child becomes more peacefully fertile ground from which the child can be allowed to grow well-adjusted psychologically and mentally very stable. In the unfortunate case that the opposite is true and the messages that the child is constantly exposed to are harsh, demeaning, derogatory, cold and unpleasant then there might be severe implications incurred on the child’s development and growth into a competent adult. Implications that range from low self-esteem and image, low or no confidence (in themselves), distrust for others sometimes culminating into the formation of very violent characters.

The provision of a warm environment which a child requires to develop is paramount and it should be right up there with supporting the basic physical needs on any parent’s wish-list for their child. The key to a harmonious society is made up of the existence of psychologically well-adjusted individuals, with the road to that well-adjustment beginning at childhood. This stage of life sets the tone for the nature of adult on the horizon and it is only right that the mental health and well-being sphere of the individual is not overlooked.

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