Gratefulness for the things children have been taught
Parents should not waste money buying too many stuffed animals and toys for their children. If you want to teach your child about gratitude, they need to be taught about a life that is just enough rather than always having excess, or even not needing it. A child with a just enough life will appreciate the value of what they have and when they see others, they will feel grateful for what they have.
Children learn about the virtue of honesty
No child is born knowing how to lie. This is a behavior learned from the external environment. There are two types of environments that can influence a child’s lying behavior: the long-term influence from their parents and the short-term influence from friends, idols, and siblings. In the short-term environment, a child learns to mimic that environment, but they will give it up when they move to a different environment. However, with the long-term environment from parents, seemingly harmless lies like breaking a promise or joking can have a long-term impact on a child.
Avoid judging others
If a child accidentally makes judgments like “she’s ugly, mom” or “that man is too fat,” then the child does not understand that it is not right. At this point, parents should simply say, “mom/dad doesn’t know, and mom/dad won’t judge anyone, sweetie.” While talking to the child, parents should not compare the child to anyone but should focus on what they want the child to improve.
Learning about failure and admitting mistakes
Failure and success are like two sides of a coin, they cannot be separated. Young children often do not know the feeling of failure, they only know the joyful feeling of winning. It’s easy for them to understand failure as something terrifying. In fact, failure is part of any activity and it can happen even if you have made the best plans.
If parents do not prepare their child for the feeling of failure, it will be difficult for the child to face it. A smart child is one who understands victory but also knows how to deal with failure. Therefore, when playing with a child, parents should not create fake wins or make things easier just for the child to win or make the child happy. It is not beneficial to create a clever child but only to create a child who loves winning but fears failure.
The right way to educate about justice is to teach the child to accept failure and admit their own weaknesses or mistakes.
Listen before speaking
An example of adult’s poor listening ability is the threatening words of parents to their children. When they grow up, children will use this method to communicate back to us. On the other hand, if a child is respected and listened to by parents when they speak or make decisions, they will learn how to listen. While children are communicating with parents, siblings, or friends, if they interrupt or shout at them, parents should remind them promptly.
This intervention helps the child understand that everyone has the right to speak and be listened to by everyone. It is not easy to teach a child this when they grow up, especially when they think “everyone has to listen to me”. But in this world, people will only listen to the person who speaks rightly. Someone who only knows how to speak but doesn’t know how to listen, what they say may not be right.
Learn how to take care of one’s own health
Children need to be shown that they also have a role to play rather than just receiving from others. When they grow older, they will be grateful to their parents for these lessons that help them grow up confidently and have enough skills to take care of themselves as well as other family members.