Love gratitude respect faith humility responsibility joy hope kindness courage generosity self-esteem honesty willingness to work perseverance compassion self-discipline contentment integrity forgiveness patience teamwork….
We teach our children by example. What do you want them to learn?
It’s not rocket science, huh? Yet so many miss it by a mile….
And it gets even better . . . Ultimately we can only teach what we are . . . If we are not yet each of these things–loving, grateful, principled, patient, kind, warm, thoughtful, responsible, courageous, discerning, self-disciplined, etc–then we cannot teach our children these traits and virtues. We can’t just show these qualities sporadically, we have to emit them (darn near) constantly! (We’re human, after all, we all have our moments!)
Well said. We are all human and we all have our moments, I could not agree more. I sure have my moments. One of my favorite mantras is progress not perfection. I have to remind myself of this often. If we are only happy with perfection, we will never be happy because none of us are perfect. Thank you so much for your comments.
Excellent post. So true Kristin. And thanks for the reminder. Regards !!!
Thank you, Michael. We all need reminders- Regards!
Absolutely! Our kids really do become us. All of those traits you listed above must be LEARNED. Kids learn by watching and engaging first, by words and commands from their elders, second. BE what you want your kids to be. They will become a mirror of yourself.
Nice post. As parents, we should strive not for perfection, but for excellence in all we do.
Shannon, Thank you for your comments. I love “not for perfection, but for excellence.” Values are learned. We can’t scream and yell at our kids all the time and tell our kids not to scream and yell. We can’t spend our life lying and then tell our children to be honest. Well, I guess we can, but it usually doesn’t work really well. Thanks again, Shannon.
When my children were small I would remind myself of this in front of the mirror often. Now I do it to remind myself that my staff is watching. Thanks for the reminder, we do make an impact, it is just what kind..
Thanks, Tina. We all need reminders. I know that I do. Have a great day!
This morning we discussed how we don’t have to constantly correct each other about every little thing. Sometimes it’s okay to let it go.
Yes it is. 🙂
I am reading a book about change. In one chapter there is a discussion about how abusive parents were in a program that forced them to change their behavior around their children. It had an 80% success rate of parents who did not abuse their children again. If you or anyone else would like to look it up, it was done by Barbara Funderbuck and called Parent-Child Interaction. It was published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (2004) After working and volunteering in social services I found this to be truly inspiring and interesting.
Thank you for the information. I will check it out.
You’re welcome.
I remember watching my parents and being aware of making decisions to follow, and not to follow, in certain of their footsteps. Seeing their mistakes can also be a teacher. Their influence was mostly positive, but for the few negative examples I do remember thinking “I’m not going to do that when I grow up” because I saw the consequences they suffered.
Yes, making that differentiation is important. Thank you, Anneli.
I arrived late today, and don’t want to appear redundant..We model what we hope our children will see..they will remember what we did long after they’ve forgotten what we’ve said. And we won’t get it right all the time, and as such we teach them how to admit error and apologize, owning their mistakes and trying to remedy them. We teach them how to fly and then we let go…and hopefully, they fly back to return to what they know and trust as they need it…I loved this post Tina, and its message..
I love what you have added, Mimi. Thank you. I am trying to give my children roots and wings. They are still young, so I have yet to see their wings fly too far. Only time will tell if they are able to fly away fairly effortlessly and fly back to what they know and trust as they need. Great comments!
Thank you! I only know you from your posts..Your sensitivity and awareness of the need for them to grow strong roots in order to grow wings, will I’m sure reap benefits in the years to come. Lucky children you have..:-)
I will tell them you said so. 😉 Have a great day!