7 Top Values Every Child Must Be Taught By Their Parents

As children grow, they watch what those around them do, say and then draw conclusions about what they think is important in life. As parents, we are our children’s first teacher and must dedicate time to consistently teaching and modelling the core values we’d like them to imbibe.

Here are 7 important values that should be on your radar:

1. Respect: Respect, they say, is reciprocal. Just as you want your child to be highly placed and respected in the society, you must teach them how to show respect to everyone they come in contact with.

As you teach them, be a good example too. Children learn better when they watch and observe.

2. Accepting Responsibility: Being responsible implies you are answerable for an act performed or for its consequences. A child must be taught how to be accountable and face the consequences of their actions without trying to blames others for it.

3. Empathy: So many kids have lost a great number of good friends due to their lack of empathy. As a mum, it is your duty to teach your kids to always see things from other people’s perspective. Teach them to put themselves in others’ shoes so they can understand them and their point of view better.

READ ALSO: 6 Subtle Ways to Teach Your Child About Life

4. Love: Love is supernatural, it is inbuilt and a way of life. Teach your child how to show unconditional love to others, including the less privileged and physically challenged. In addition, let them know love extends to forgiving their friends and siblings and not taking revenge.

5. A Love of Reading: Let your kid know the value of education. Teach them how to read. Read out loud to them and make it fun. Get a variety of books available for them by creating a small library in your home where you have magazines, non-fiction books, etc. Take them out regularly to the bookshop and let them pick books of their choice.

6. Accepting Disappointment: When I was in primary four, the best pupil in my class took the second position for the very first time and when she saw the result, she started weeping. It was not funny at all as she fell sick and was hospitalized.

Let your kids know nothing in life is constant and lots of disappointments will come. Emphasize that it is normal, must be accepted and the best thing to do is trying again. Cite examples of great people in the world today and how their failures resulted into great success.

7. Culture: Teach your child your culture; the way they do things where you come from, your language, the dos and don’ts and so on. It is very important your kids know all these.