We often talk about peer pressure among youth. But no one talks about pressure among parents.

Being a parent is not easy and social media has made parenting far more challenging. Parents feel pressure from so called experts via all forms of media on what they should do to ensure their child’s social and academic development. On how to fix their child’s learning challenges, on what other star children and doing and achieving. We often find ourselves under pressure to push our children to do more and Constant comparisons between our child and other children makes the situation far worse for us and our families.

Spending quality time with young children, by engaging them in social and physical activities will aid their development. Reaching out to other families with young children to set up play dates and other social activities are really important for your child. Very young children need to work on their social and emotional skills to build self-esteem which helps deal with challenges they might face when interacting with peers in the absence of adults.

It doesn’t take long before children are part of organised activities, such as sport, music and dance, so it is a good idea to spend time with them when they are young, engaged in what interests them – and not only what media says they need to do.

Playing, having fun and spending quality time together is what you may want to focus on, in your child’s early years and most importantly be guided by what you value as a family.