The beginning of Child development starts from your decision in choosing Who's your life partner

We had a case conference discussing on the amalgamation of theories in child development (operationally defined as 0 - 7 years of age). Yes, today, the ghosts of Sigmund Freud, Piaget, Bowlby and Kohlberg came alive, right in Minda (the name of our meeting room). To spice things up, the discussion was centred around the Islamic teachings of child development as espoused in the revelation.

"The beginning of Child Development starts from your decision in choosing WHO's your life partner" , brother (we call our boss 'brother') begun his part of the research.

THAT woke me up! (u see, it was 2pm, and i skipped lunch preparing Kohlberg theory and rushing Saff deadlines)

Wow! Brother! What happened to our operationally defined age (0 - 7 years)???

Often times we focus on the development of our child's physical ("uu.. she's wearing 'L' size pampers now"), social ("she smiles whenever she sees me"), emotional ("she doesnt like it if i take away her blankie") and cognitive ("she can now say 'mama'!") development. Little do we pay attention to the little tinkle bell's tauhidic development.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen....
ALL aspects of development begin at the moment when we choose our life partner.

The little tyke is welcomed with the sweet (i rather husky) voice of his/her father's adzan and iqamah.

That is the beginning of his/her Tauhidic education.

The child is born in FITRAH.

No... not tabula rasa (Latin word coined by John Locke, which is the notion that individual human beings are born "blank", and that their identity is defined entirely by their experiences and sensory perceptions of the outside world)

A child is born not as a blank sheet of cloth, or paper, but with the potential of being GOOD. And GOOD is definitely not a blank.

The interesting discovery didnt end there. Critical analysis of theories and its practicality has always interest my grey cells.

Dun just throw away Freud, Bowlby, Kohlberg, Erikson, Piaget and the likes.
They created this knowledge with empirical evidence, with rigorous experimentations and testings.
Islam has always acknowledge knowledge created from our intelligence.

But as Muslims, be mindful of our limitations. The limitation of our intelligence.

Revelation has always been the source of all knowledge. Return to it.
And strengthen the Freud, Bowlby, Kohlberg and etc, with the Islamic perspective, with the entrance of eeman.

Brother,
i wish to argue your initial statement.
Indeed, the beginning of Child development starts from my decision being the very person i aspire to be

Ladies..
Your motherly tasks begin NOW...with yourself.

Humaira...
NOW.