There are lots of influences today that affect parenting, children and family life in general. While the family continues to ensure that there is adequate family time, there is also the concern on ensuring that your children learn the right values. There are some helpful tips for practical parenting to instil values in your children’s lives.
Instead of telling your kids how to live, show them.
How you treat people affects what your children pick up and learn. Simply stated, actions speak louder than words. The next time someone upsets you, like someone jumping in front of you in line at the shop, treat the situation as an important learning opportunity to show your children how you would behave. How to act in situations can not only be taught as principles they should be taught by the actions you take as well. The earlier children see you acting these out the more they grow up understanding what good values are.
Talk about your values in regular conversation
What we say in front of our kids is more important than what we say to them. When you do something great, talk about it within earshot of your kids. For example, when your child is sitting nearby, you might say to your spouse, “Honey, the clerk at the store gave me ten dollars too much in change. I could have kept it, but I gave it back. I always feel better when I do the right thing!” Once again children learn a lot from actions and values that are reality than a lecture of what to do in certain situations, so hearing you acted in an honest way for example will stick more than just a lecture of the importance of honesty.
Teach character and responsibility with empathy and consequences.
Allow children to make mistakes in safe situations. Kids develop character and positive values when they learn that poor decisions result in uncomfortable consequences. For example a parent when her teenager daughter got caught shoplifting. They held her responsible for hiring her own lawyer and paying the court costs. That was fifteen years ago, and she’s grown to be a wonderful, responsible young woman. On her thirtieth birthday, she even thanked us for being so strict!” Sometimes just as adults, children need to sometime feel the “pain” of their decisions do not just shield them and fix every problem…As a friend would say “he who does not hear shall feel”
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