I’m sure you want to teach your children a lot of good habits, but what is the best way to do it? One of the best ways to do it is certainly to be a role model for your kids. Children can learn almost from everything they see and it is very important to show them a good pattern to follow. Sometimes it may not work, but mainly children learn from what their parents do. So be very careful with what you do and make sure you teach your kids the following important habits.
1. Manners
The first thing you need to teach your kids is the good manners. Look around you and you will see that not only do kids lack manners today, but grownups as well. And it’s actually where the problem is. Children are absorbing information from wherever they can, so you need to show good manners for them to learn. Never forget to use “please” and “thank you”, no matter what. And you will see your children a polite grownups one day.
2. Kindness
I used to tell my kids that everyone should be treated with kindness. But if I speak badly about people I do not like, it won’t teach my children kindness. So I let them see that we may not like some people, but nevertheless we are to behave kindly to them. Because it is the way we want be treated.
3. Hygiene
Most of the parents know how difficult it is to teach children hygiene. So you must be ready as it will take a lot of time to show you kids that it is important to brush their teeth and have a shower. You will need to let them know the necessity of combing hair, washing face and when you succeed, hygiene will become part of their daily routine.
4. Healthy food
Nowadays, we have a lot of problems with children’s health, and one of them is obesity. Sure, you want your kids to be healthy, which is why you need to create healthy eating habits for them. You can do it by showing them you eat only healthy foods. Make sure you eat natural food instead of chips and hamburgers. It doesn’t mean that you will never eat them again, but make you kids understand that treat is something than do not happens often. Just choose your food well and your kids will follow you.
5. Sport
If you don’t like to exercise, don’t expect your children to go in for sport. I can give you a bit of advice – do it together. Thus, you will spend more time with your children and will be able to show them healthy way of life. Isn’t it great? You can play active games with your kids, such as basketball or football or just do some routine exercises together. Don’t make them do it, just let them watch, and I bet they will join you. It will help you to keep fit as well as model healthy habit to your kids.
6. Compassion
Every human needs to know that someone cares about him. Teaching you kids to be compassionate will help them through their lives. Children need to be understood and in this way they will learn to understand others, understand their necessities and actions. Talk to your children, ask them what they feelings are, and ask them to see things from other people’s point of view. If you are able to show them compassion, they will never pass by someone in need and they will be loved in return.
7. Responsibility
One more important thing to teach your kids is responsibility. If you want your children to take responsibility for their actions, you need to “start low, go slow”. For example, if you want them to be responsible for their own dirty dishes and dirty laundry, you need to care about your own dishes and laundry. The same thing goes about work. Before demanding for the homework to be done, make sure you don’t forget about your work obligations. A good example is everything you need to make things done.
So now that you know about importance of modeling for your kids, do you think your behavior is a good model for them? Or, perhaps, you need to change or add something to it?