Children are a mirror of their families. They often don’t do what they’re told, but what they see the older people of the house doing. Thus, the first and the foremost step of inculcating values in children is to follow exactly what you preach. Children will often ignore what you tell them, but they will never forget what you did. It is simple, they mimic the older and within no time they become exactly like them, this is human nature and one cannot change it. Other than this there are various options that you can choose to try and inculcate values in your children :
Be an example for them – When the kid sees you doing something right, they will automatically follow you and do the right thing and because it is natural and not something the kid is doing purposely, it will continue for years to come. It will become a part of his/her nature and the kid will basically be learning the values from the parents. Similarly, if the kids see the parents doing something awfully wrong, they tend to pick it up because they don’t have the sensibilities of distinguishing between the right and the wrong.
Enroll them in various competitions and sports – Competitions and sports inherently put the kid in the habit of following the rules and introduce values in their daily life. Many values like leadership, team spirit, hardwork etc, can be easily learnt through sports. The kid will become a sportsman, physically fit and will learn the important values of life.
Share your experiences with the kid – Sharing or reiterating your life journey in front of the kids will make them realize a lot of things. The kids often pick up the parts of the story which you never thought were important, but they learn from your past experiences. Children often get fascinated hearing stories about their parent’s childhood and how they dealt with difficult situations and they apply it to their own lives.
Tell the kid when he/she is wrong – The kids are too young to understand if their actions are right or wrong. Letting them know the correct way of doing a thing or how to deal with a particular life situation will be helpful for the kid, and is your duty as a parent. This will make your children feel secure, but too much of nagging can turn the child against you and you don’t want that to happen.
Reading helps a lot – Reading will not only make the child smarter and sharper, but will also give them insight about various values and they often learn from the actions of the characters. They also identify with the characteristics of the character and try and compare the life situations. Thus, reading introduces new things and values to their lives.
There is no hard and fast rule that children cannot be taught this way or that way. Oblivious to the fact that everything they see is actually a lesson, children absorb the happenings of their surroundings and become a product of their environment. The only thing that the parents should focus on is giving maximum exposure to the kid so that he makes life choices with awareness and full consciousness. We all want our children to be the best and parenting may seem like a difficult thing, but children will eventually take after their parents always. Just keep doing what you do best, give your child the care and concern and they will turn out to be the best version of themselves.
Image courtesy : theguardian.com
If something that must be transferred to the next generation, it is the cultural values and the moral ethics. This becomes further necessary in the kind of environment we people are persisting in, these days! You must talk to the kids and tell them about how the world used to be in your time and how the values were respected. Give them an insight of the world at an early age.