It Takes a Village: Why Every Child Needs Nurturing Care

It Takes a Village: Why Every Child Needs Nurturing Care

What the first 1,000 days, and the UAE’s Early Childhood Week, ask of all of us

By Dr. Shafeeq Ahmed

A child can have a room full of toys and still be waiting for someone to play. A child can attend an expensive preschool and still feel unheard. A child can learn to count early without yet feeling safe enough to say, “I am frightened.”

These quiet possibilities ask us an honest question: are we giving children what they need to grow, or mainly what adults have learned to measure?

The First 1,000 Days

From conception to a child’s second birthday lies a window of roughly 1,000 days in which the brain grows faster than it ever will again. In these earliest years, more than a million new neural connections form every second, and they are shaped not only by food and medicine but by faces, voices, touch and play. A lullaby, a returned smile, a calm arm around a crying toddler: these are not small things. They are the architecture of a mind being built.

That is why the World Health Organization’s Nurturing Care Framework speaks of five needs that must work together: good health, adequate nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving, and opportunities for early learning. Remove anyone, and the others carry less weight. A child is learning the names of colors, yes, but also something deeper: what to expect from the people around them.

No Parent Was Meant to Do This Alone

The old saying is true: it takes a village to raise a child. A preschool cannot provide everything. Neither can a pediatric clinic, a playground, or even a deeply devoted family working without support. Telling an exhausted mother or father to “be more patient” is not enough when they are carrying illness, isolation or long working hours on their own. Nurturing requires adults who are supported, not simply adults who are instructed to give more.

This is the spirit behind the UAE’s Early Childhood Week. What began in Abu Dhabi in 2024 becomes a nationwide observance for the first time from 16 to 22 November 2026, under the theme “Every Moment Matters.” It brings education, health, sport, technology and community services to the same table, a recognition that childhood is shaped not only inside the home but by the spaces, services and expectations a society creates. The real test, of course, comes after the banners are taken down: what becomes kinder and more supportive in a child’s ordinary day?

Providing Is Not the Same as Nurturing

Possessions, prestigious schools and exam results often come from love. But they cannot tell us whether a child feels free to ask for help, whether affection is given without being earned, or whether there is still time simply to play. Nurturing does not mean a childhood without limits either. Children need boundaries, but boundaries that teach rather than frighten. “You are angry. I will not let you hit. Let us find another way.” That is authority with a purpose.

And every child must belong. A child with a disability or developmental difference deserves inclusion and timely support, not stigma or comparison. Seeking a professional assessment is never a failure of faith or of parenting. It is an act of care.

Where the Future Really Begins

We do not need a long list that leaves families feeling inadequate. We need a few things done faithfully. Protect one unhurried moment each day for conversation, a story or play. Follow the child’s interest instead of directing every minute. Speak with warmth alongside clear expectations. Ask for help when it feels too heavy. And as teachers, doctors, neighbors and institutions, let us make that help easy to find and free of shame.

We often speak of preparing children for the future. Nurturing care asks something just as important: to make their present safe, connected and worthy of childhood. A child needs more than a good start on paper. A child needs people, and a village, prepared to care.

This week, put the phone down for ten minutes, sit at your child’s level, and let them lead. Every moment matters.

  #NurtureWithDrShafeeq