Nurturing means more than giving your child food, shelter and clothing. It is about building a healthy and strong emotional relationship (attachment) between you and your child. It means being the person your child can count on for comfort whether he is a fussy infant or a toddler having a temper tantrum. It means being your child’s safe base. The person he can turn to for love, safety and security as he begins to explore the big world around him.
Research shows that when you nurture your child, your child is more likely to be healthy, successful in school, able to get along with other children, and better able to handle stress.
As important as it is, nurturing isn’t always easy. For example, sometimes when your baby is crying, you don’t know why and nothing you do comforts him. Every parent has that experience, feeling helpless and uncertain at times. But hang in there. Try to stay calm. Tell your baby you love him and that together you will figure it out. Because you will—but it takes time.
School-age children whose mothers nurtured them early in life have brains with a larger hippocampus, a key part of the brain that is important to learning, memory and response to stress. (LUBY J.L, ET. AL, 2012)
