Marlene R. Tamon
Mailbox # 40
B.S. Psychology, University of Sto. Tomas, 1995
Master of Arts in Education
Dr. Teody M. Pajaron
Dr. Evelyn R. Pajaron
ES621: Parenting, Schools and Achievement
International Graduate School of Leadership
Quezon City, Philippines
Submitted June 30, 2012
“What makes an effective parent?” “How can one be effective in his or her parenting?” Answers to these questions are very much needed by a father or a mother who truly loves his or her children and has deep concern for them. These are simple questions which may be answered right away but doing it passionately is another issue. For me, understanding the real meaning of parenting should be clear to a person before deciding to have kids. Even before our Parenting class, I knew I was lacking in my parenting skills. Although my husband and I were trying to be the parent that God wants us to be, somehow I can sense that there were things that we were not doing properly. This made me even more interested to take up this subject. As expected, just after the first day of class, God enabled me to see that I was not doing it His way. As a mother, I was not praying as often and as earnestly as I should for each of my children. And if I am praying, I was only asking for what is here and now and not their future lives. I was shaken when I realized that there were aspects in our parenting style that were not helping our children to mature in their respective areas of growth. And I am grateful that God has allowed me to gain a lot of insights not only from our readings but more relevantly, on the real life experiences of our teachers. One of the principles that really made an impact on me is that of praying for my children. That was the very first thing that I heard (or at least the very first that struck me real hard) from Ate Bing as she was talking about how she and Kuya Teody raised their kids. Praying for them is one