Children Need To Know Their Feelings Matter

Beautiful Soul

This morning when I opened my browser and read the psychology website I left yesterday, I saw these wonderful lines about parent-child relationships. 

Kids need to know their feelings matter. It makes them feel real, cared for, seen, heard and seen. 

Those words are true. When I was little, I never cared about my own feelings. I may feel sad, afraid, or disappointed, but it is all hidden deep inside my heart. No one taught me about those feelings or even bothered to tell me they were real. What I knew was that there's an empty space inside me that I carried everywhere, from when I was little until adult. 

Now that I am a mother myself, I have learned that children have feelings that they and everyone around them must acknowledge. The words I quoted from a psychology site say exactly what I mean. 

Once children know that their feelings matter, they will become better humans. They will learn that their feelings are respected by others and they must respect other people's feelings too. When they are sad or happy, they do not have to bury those feelings, but learn to express them in the right way. 

Apart from that, they will also learn to know whether what they feel is right or wrong, and the reasons behind it. If that doesn't happen, children will feel empty within themselves. 

Various kinds of feelings, both negative and positive, that are not expressed will continue to be carried into adulthood. In time, those unanswered questions will find their own place at the end of the day, on the face of a depressed adult.