“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn." -Benjamin Franklin
One of the best ways on how to effectively teach a child anything is by showing it to him. Telling a child what to do is also a good thing but the best thing is to be the best example for your child. A child will reflect how he is raised in a family. He will exhibit positive or negative behavior depending on how a child was treated, taught, and valued in a family.
Many children when asked who they want to be when they grow up, they answer different professions. Only some of them say that they want to either be their mother or their father. Although given the fact that kids are supposed to look up to their parents, many of them still want to be someone else.
Parents are the best source for children’s development since they are the parents and they are the people whom the children spends most of their time with.
A good parenting produces good children. Bad parenting leads to bad children. Just like the saying which states “the fruit is what the tree bears." It only means that the children are the product of the parents. Not just in physical aspect but in behavior and personality.
You can’t teach the opposite of what you do.
“Practice what you preach.”
If a parent doesn’t want her kids to do drugs, smoke cigarette, drink alcohol, say bad words, exhibit misbehaving attitude, then, she must not exhibit this behaviors as well. It’s impossible to convince your child that those things are bad if they see their parents doing it.
Most children are able to learn by imitating the behavior and the actions done of the people around them. So, if you want to effectively teach your child to differentiate good from bad, you have to be the best example for them.
Personal Experience:
We have this house rules that me and my siblings has to follow. Every home has a house rule and it differs from each household but those rules are created in order to put everything in check and not just to impose a mandatory rule.
None of my siblings can smoke inside the house. If they want to smoke they have to leave our house until they finished smoking. If they want to drink liquor outside, they’d have to take care of themselves. No one is going to take care of them if ever they puke or done something stupid. They must be responsible for their actions. They can only drink liquor at home occasionally. They can’t become drunkards. We have to follow those rules if we still want to live in the house. If we want to live our lives out of their rules, then we have to move out. For as long as we stay in my parent’s house, we have to obey these rules.
I’m blessed because none of my parents has any vice. Both of them are busy in taking care of the family and providing for our needs so don’t have any reason to have those vices since we don’t see it to them.
You can’t teach what you don’t know.
When kids reach a certain age when they are curious about everything and keeps bugging you question after question, the best thing for you to do is to patiently answer them. If they can’t find the answers from you, they will surely look for it from other source. You can never be sure if that other source is reliable or truthful. When the kids ask you about something, be understanding enough that it’s part of growing up.
If you can’t spare them a minute to ease their curiosity, they won’t also spare you a moment when you want to have a serious talk with them. You might not notice it at first but children doesn’t easily forget the way you treat them.
Also, don’t be all-knowing. If you don’t know the answer, you can just simply be honest to your child, than to give him false information which won’t be difficult to correct when he ages.
Personal Experience:
My parents doesn’t know a lot of things but they surely know what we need to know just when we need it from them. Their opinion about our lives always matter. Their point of view towards certain things definitely matter. Our parents has taught us the importance of asking them for advice or for the things that we don’t know. They might not have the best answer of everything but they are surely one of the most reliable source when it comes to life hacks and being practical.
When it comes to academics, me and my sibling learned by ourselves. As for my father, it’s difficult to take care of eight kids how much more in guiding each of us in our studies, so they provide the things that we need to gather information like dictionary, learning materials, laptop, computer, cell phone and even the internet connection. On the other hand, my mother is way too busy working for our family so we don’t have much time to ask her about our queries in our studies. We grew up depending on ourselves and making sure to do our projects by ourselves.
Be the best model for your children to look up to.
If you are a mother and you want to raise your daughter right, be the best example for her to look up to. Teach her and show her the things that a woman must and must not do. You must be the perfect example that women are not weak and women can live with or without a man. Teach her to love herself and to finish her studies so she won’t have to depend on a man. If it’s a son the show the proper way of treating women. Be the kind of woman whom he’ll want to marry. Be responsible and take care of your family the way you want them to be taken cared off in the future.
If you are a father and you want to influence your son positively, be the kind of man that he will admire not just for your profession but most importantly on how you handle your family. Your son will also be a father and build his own family. You must be the best example for him on how to be a real man. If you want your daughter to be treated right then treat her mother right. Be the kind of man whom she’ll want to spend the rest of her life with. It all starts at home.
The kids will grow up and have their own families as well. If you have been the right example for them which inspired them towards having their own spouse then it’s a good thing. Yes, you can never dictate what they want in life but you can show them the kind of life they deserve.
Personal Experience:
I can’t say that my parents are perfect. They are humans so they also commit mistakes and do things which are not right but the good thing is that they exhibit the qualities that a child will want to possess when he or she grows old.
I grew up wanting to be like my mom because she never depended on my father for our financial needs. She has been providing for our needs since my eldest brother was born. She worked as a factory worker, street sweeper and other different jobs in order to support our studies and put food on the table.
She always make sure to show us that we are forever her first priority. While my father although he doesn’t provide for our family needs, he does the duty of a father to his children. HE took care of us and he still does up until now. They are also the type of grandparents whom my nieces and nephews want to have.
Leave a good legacy to your child/children.
Legacy is more than just money, house, properties, business or any material thing. Legacy is about this question.
How do I want to be remembered by my kids?
Do you want to be remembered in a good way? Then do good. Be the example of a good person. Be good in the way you talk, the way you act, the way you react and the way you live. It’s always important to know how you affect your children.
Personal Experience:
My mother always tells us to imitate the good things she does and if ever we know that what she does isn’t right, we must not try to imitate it. Her ultimate goal is to raise us, her children, to be God-fearing, good people and to finish our studies we won’t have to experience the hardships they experienced before.
My mom is a street sweeper and I’m always proud of her while my father ever since I was growing up has no job. My mom was the one providing for our needs while our father takes care of us. I always wonder why our family set up has to be this way. If I were to choose, I’d rather have my mom to stay with us than our father but things won’t always go the way I want it to be. She was the one with a larger source of income than my father so they decided to raise us this way.
Love_16
January 5, 2021
Tuesday
