It is fair to say most people appreciate the role science plays as a whole in our society. Without it we would be without medication, power, computers, the internet, materials like Teflon, plastics and more. Health care alone is reason enough to at least respect science even if you are not ready to bow at the altar of the test tube so to speak. But for a lot of people science is something other people do and it isn’t something they bring into their daily lives and certainly not into raising children. This is a shame and can miss some really good life skills, views and parenting tips as a whole.

Careers

So before we look at more nuanced roles science plays in a child’s life let’s just take a moment to appreciate that brining science into your home and daily parenting can help build towards a great career. We all think about what our kids will do when they are older and science is never a negative outcome. Science is such a broad term too, a career in science can range from looking after animals and vet based work to building a space telescope. The types of jobs can be huge too; take a company called www.mcineuroscience.com for example. They make neuroscience equipment and sell it around the world. In terms of jobs there are people that make the equipment, people that design it, people that test it etc but there are also people that market it and sell it too. So even if you have your heart set on your little girl or boy being a big hitter and making a lot of money science can still be the right path. If your child is a budding Gordon Ghekko you might think science is the wrong place for them but people still have to sell science equipment, drugs, labs etc and those people get paid very well. So rather science can actually be the place for a huge career in sales too!

The thing to remember about science is that it is always moving forward and this means opportunity. When you have a community of people driving forward all the time you have business, money and success ready for the taking.

Understanding the World

This could be a contentious one for some people but it really shouldn’t be. While some people are very happy in the fact science can pretty much explain everything, other people prefer to think there are factors that are controlled by other means and that’s fine. But if we look at the day to day world and leave the heavy stuff for another debate it is very hard to avoid science. By embracing science at a young age with fun experiments like the ones you find here http://www.scienceforkidsclub.com/ you can really improve their understanding of the world around them. What good does this do? Well it has a knock on effect in everything they do. You will notice science fuels a young mind like nothing else. Once they start understanding something they will point it out all the time and then thirst for the next thing. What parent would shy away from a chance to have a child who understands plastics comes from oil, that sound travels slower than light and that you can get sick from not washing your hands and why! This kind of engagement will be beneficial in all subjects because science plays such a big role in most of them from maths to subjects like English. You may not think it does but having a grasp of the world, the weather, the sun and moon etc can help support a lot of different educational and life processes.

Understanding Your Kids

So this last one is less about the kids and more about you! Ignoring science can leave behaviour in the category of “it’s just what they do”; Embracing science will bring knowledge and understanding to the various stages of growing up and much more. The science starts from a very early age. Take the hormone Oxytocin. Ever heard of it? Well if not you will have felt its effects. It is a hormone produced during breast feeding and early new born periods that helps build attachment. Attachment is so important for many reasons and not just at a young age so understanding the value of a cuddle can really help children feel more associated with parents and more. it is often called the parenting hormone https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X17300325  it also happens to work well on adults and has been suggested as a factor in keeping relationships healthy. Some good old fashion skin to skin contact (not specifically sex it is important to say) can help maintain the bond between adult parents and thus help maintain a family structure. Hooray for science!

This is just one example where some reading and research and some time welcoming science into your parenting can help make things work better. Those teenage years don’t happen by mistake either, the behaviour changes are almost entirely down to hormonal responses and as such can be addressed and understood. Extra risk taking among young men, emotional changes in young women, feelings towards the opposite sex, negative feeling towards us poor parents…it’s all hormones and science is here to help.

Make Friends With Science

So next time you feel a yawn coming on when someone mentions science just take a moment to think how much it can be of use to you as a parent. Great career prospects for your kids, a better understand of the world around them and better learning successes and a very useful cheat sheet for parenting too…..and that’s just 3 useful things, this list could be a lot longer.