1. Watch Your Words
Words are powerful. Your words can influence other people in both positive and negative ways, so you must avoid any negative comments. Demonstrating how you can be kind with your speech will help your children understand the ins and outs of what they should do when speaking with others.
Children mimic your words. They want to be just like you, so it only makes sense to repeat what their parents say. Make sure that you're only speaking in love around your children when referring to them, yourself and others in the world. Teach them that hate is unacceptable by modelling the proper way to speak about themselves and other people.
2. Teach Them to Communicate
When you're upset with your child, do not hold an immature grudge or ignore the problem. As long as your children understand words, they'll understand emotions if you speak to them about your feelings. Use words and phrases that will help them understand how you're feeling. Then, they may feel like they can open up to you about when they feel good or bad, too.
Having stellar communication skills can help them in school and beyond. It'll help them build better bonds with their peers and allow them to solve conflicts with relative ease. Your bond will also improve as a result — especially once you understand one another's likes and dislikes and emotions as much as possible.
3. Allow Them to Choose for Themselves
Part of growing up is making choices you don't necessarily want to make. Some children may have trouble deciding things for themselves, so it's okay to give them a gentle push toward independence.
To help them with decision-making, you can offer them situations with limited options rather than open-ended ones. For example, instead of asking them what they want to eat for dinner, give them the option of whether they'd rather eat one meal option or another meal option.
Once you show your children that they're ultimately in control of their own lives, they may feel a little more confident. You may be able to offer them more complex or open-ended choices, such as whether they'll hug a loved one or what they want to do on a free day. Show them that choices aren't things to be afraid of, and they may grow to like making decisions.
4. Show Passion and Honesty
You should demonstrate a passion for your life and honesty in your speech in everything that you do. Those values are crucial to living a good, whole life. People will think that you are an impactful person when you’re genuine and passionate about something. Your child is no different. They’ll understand that a valuable person holds great values and inspires change in others. When they see that in you, you’ll be one of their greatest inspirations as they grow up.
5. Challenge Them to Grow
As a parent, you want to protect your child from the world. Unfortunately, you can't always be around to keep them safe. In some situations, they need to spread their wings and fly on their own. Doing so is how they learn to navigate the world independently and make their own choices.
Challenging them to grow out of their comfort zone healthily can teach your child independence. Depending on their age level, you can have them do anything from calling a relative by themselves to pumping gas in a car without help. In the end, they'll be grateful for the little push in the right direction.
6. Let Them Try Things
When your child wants to help you do something, let them. Children love to watch what their parents are doing and lend their assistance where possible. Find an age-appropriate task for your kids to take care of while you handle the more intensive tasks. For example, if you're cooking a dish, you can ask your children to wash the vegetables while you cut them up to put in a pot. Allow them to dig holes in the soil for you while you're gardening.
Your child will likely feel significant and loved by being a part of your hobbies. They may even find that they love the hobby, too. It makes them feel valued to play a role in your busy day, no matter how small or easy their task may be. Plus, it encourages learning new things.
7. Set Goals With Them
Setting goals is exciting, as it allows you to improve and look forward to the new person you'll become after you achieve them. Encourage your children to set small goals, too. They'll be able to experience the sweet feeling of a job well done and aspire to do even better in the future with improved confidence. If your child has trouble making friends at school, set a goal with them that the two of you will make one new friend a week each.
Alternatively, you can make at-home goals with younger children. If one of your children has a hard time keeping their room clean, set a goal with them that involves cleaning up all toys and stuffed animals. In return, you can make sure another room in the house stays clean. By setting goals together, you can motivate one another to do better.
8. Spend Time Doing What They Love
Your children have interests from the moment they start developing their likes and dislikes. Whether they're interested in playing pretend, learning more about certain animals or watching a certain television show. By taking an interest in what they love, you're teaching your child to value time with their loved ones and know their worth and that their opinions are important.
While you may not want to spend all day doing something that your children love, even spending an hour or so a day with their interests can mean the world to them. Think back to when you were a child, to how much you loved someone spending time with you. Show them that love is caring about other people and they can carry that with them into life as they grow up.
Be Your Children's Favourite Role Model
Since you're the first teacher your children will encounter, it only makes sense that you teach them good things about the world and encourage them to grow and learn more about themselves and other people. You have the unique opportunity to inspire your children every day of their lives. Strive to be your best while raising your children to be great little human beings and you'll reap every benefit of the journey.
*Collaborative Post
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