Top 5 Lessons To Teach Our Children

Top 5 Lessons To Teach Our Children

With so many parents relying on TV to teach their kids about life, your child is at risk of growing up in a world where straight teeth are more important than the words that pass them. Here's five life lessons that aren't covered on sitcoms and cartoons.

1. Life isn't fair, it's about being fair

This is the toughest life lesson for some children to learn. It's about understanding that sometimes things won't go your way but you must rise above them and act with dignity and honour, even though, these days it's hard to find a good example of why…. It's a way of teaching your children to hold on to ethics and self worth when they're dealt an unfair blow.

2. It's not about what you get, it's about how you got it.

Teaching your child to pursue her goals with all her mind, heart and soul teaches her to feel a sense of accomplishment when she reaches the goal. There is a difference between that and a sense of satisfaction at getting what she wants. Both are nice, but one leads to happiness and one leads to greediness. In life, she may work hard to get the best job or the best figure or the best car but then find she still lacks self esteem and happiness. If she knows that working really hard and passionately delivers happiness, the material is irrelevant. Her self esteem will always be the winner!

3. Practice without the preach

In a contemporary society that celebrates multiculturalism, freedom of expression and multiple view points, it’s not longer appropriate to be an evangelist of any kind. Whether it's Jesus or Jojoba, fried food or fair trade, it's vital to teach children tolerance and respect for the opinions of others. While it may "feel right" to preach a sensible topic like environmentalism, your child's opinions will develop and the lesson s/he will take with her will not just be an environmentally conscious one, but also a self righteous one. Demonstrating the reasons for your opinions and allowing her to make up her own mind will help her to develop a more considered approach to topics. Of course, you want her to be thoughtful and opinionated, just not preachy and domineering to boot.

4. Boys pull hair because they like girls

Well, not exactly that, but that s/he should try to understand that communication is a treacherous sea to navigate and some flounder. If there is someone who is resorting to aggression or even silence, s/he must look beyond the actions or words for the underlying meaning. This means, not engaging with bullies, understanding them and taking the upper hand for example. Long term it means that s/he'll be better able to understand relationships.

5. There is no such thing as perfect and rarely such a thing as better tha

From media ads to test scores to " it crowds" to your postcode, there is no such thing as perfect. The family who live in the second best house on the street can make a choice, to be envious of the "perfect" house or to celebrate living a comfortable life. The prettiest (and nastiest) girl at school may be secretly struggling with grades or health issues. The pictures in magazines are not real. Nobody has a perfect life. Everyone has their own demons and struggles. Pressuring a child to be better at school, be better at sport, be better at….whatever it is, will only illustrate that others are "better than them". Encouraging them to be passionate and to work hard for what they want allows them to have pride in what they have, not envy of others.