PERSPECTIVES

THE MAGIC OF CHILDREN

This is my daughter Mia. The picture was taken in March 2015. She's presently five, but going on 16 very quickly. When Mia was born, I thought here I am going to teach this innocent child everything I know about the world. While that may be true, I have to say that she taught me more about life and about myself than I could've ever imagined.

Children are magical. They deserve to be protected, it's our moral, social and parental responsibility to get it right. In my opinion, a child should never feel she is walking on a tight rope. They have to be provided with the freedom to be innovative, to think freely and in the process discover themselves.

Kids are magical and they are individually unique — God created each of them individually. It's just that simple.

I encourage Mia to truly believe that she is special. Not because of what she wears or what she looks like, but because of who she is, what she does and how she does it. We should teach our children to treat others with love and respect no matter what their appearance may be, their cultural background, ethnic background, religious belief or otherwise.

I am no master at bringing up children but I also believe we should talk to our kids about the choices they are making and the reasons behind them however small these may appear to be. Show them true character through your actions. Parenting in my opinion is all about setting boundaries and teaching your children to respect them. Those boundaries must be based on certain principles be it religious, family beliefs or otherwise.

Aside from their uniqueness, children are magical because of the endless possibilities they see in front of them. There are no restrictions, no barriers, no filters. Just raw, "I can jump." As parents we have the responsibility to promote this. To push them to leap forward, to move civilization forward - and to eventually push the evolution of our species forward.

I promise I will come back and update this section 10 years from now.