Life Lessons to Teach Your Children

 

20130512_094756

 

This is a partnered post.

There are so many thing we want to teach our children. Life lessons. Life is hard and you have to know what to do and how to handle it. Of course a lot of lessons are learned from mistakes. For me, raising my children is the most rewarding job that I could ever have and I am so happy to be a mom. It’s not easy and I make mistakes but I hope that what I try and teach my children will stick with them.

Work hard for what you want.

This was hard for my stepsons at times. Many of the teenagers in our neighborhood were given cars for their birthdays. They wanted one too. But we made them work for their cars. They had to have already earned at least half of the money for their car. They had to have a job to pay for gas and insurance. We could afford to pay for it. I had to buy my car and pay for everything and it made me appreciate it much more. The same applies to school. If you want to graduate and go to good school you have to work hard for those grades.

Manners

We were never sticklers for manners but I guess we showed our children what they needed to know. I am always told how polite my children are at friend’s houses. I wonder because they don’t always act polite at home!

Sharing

Sharing is hard when you’re four. I’ve seen my children act selfishly around other children and not want to share. I always make it point to share though. Just yesterday at the pool a little girl picked up a toy my daughter was not using and I let her play with it. Of course right then my daughter wanted to play with it. But I made her wait until the toddler moved on to something else. As children get older they will be learning negotiation skills. It’s essential to learn. As adults we have to share at work, at the store and at home. I have days when I don’t want to share…but I get over it.

Patience

Patience is essential when you have children. But children learn to learn it too. Waiting in line at the store. Waiting for your turn to play. I gained more patience after I had my children and with age.  We watched a Little Bear episode that was perfect about learning patience and I remind my daughter about every once in a while. Little Bear wanted to go fishing but he Father Bear said he had to “wait a little while.” Then he had to wait “a little while” for dinner. It was hard to “wait a little while” but he did it! Even my mom at 72 needs to learn patience as she has problems using the computer. She gets all flustered and wants to give up!

Life isn’t fair.

It feels that way sometimes doesn’t it? I try to teach my children that sometimes life is not fair. We can work hard and do all the right things and sometimes it just doesn’t turn out the way we expected. Someone else may skim by and cheat and get good results. But…I encourage them to continue to work hard and still do the rights things, because it’s the right thing to do.

Apologize

If you do something wrong or hurt someone by accident even, apologize. It can be hard to say your sorry, but you will be the better person for doing so. I always make my children apologize to their sibling for a wrongdoing.

 

These are just a few life lessons that continue to be taught in our home.

What life lessons do you teach your children?

 

Anne

I'm a mother of 2 who likes to get involved in too much! Besides writing here I started a non-profit, I'm on the PTO board, very active in my community and volunteer in the school. I enjoy music, reading, cooking, traveling and spending time with my family. We just adopted our 3rd cat and love them all!

More Posts

Comments

  1. That life isn’t fair. That you have to work hard, and still, life isn’t always fair. But being fair and considerate is the right thing to do.

  2. These are all so fair. One more — “don’t worry, this won’t last’ — whether it’s a fight with a friend, difficulty with a subject at school, or missing a catch in the big game.

  3. I’m actually writing a piece geared towards high school seniors that is similar to this one–fairness is a major point. Life isn’t fair but we still have to move on.

  4. ah Patience. It’s my enemy I swear. I hardly have any but I am trying to get more so my kids will also learn to have it

  5. Great lessons, especially about manners and apologizing. More people need to do that to lessen all the tension in workplaces and such.

  6. Janet W. says

    All of these are definitely great lessons to teach your children. My mom always taught me that hard work pays off and I passed that onto my daughters.

  7. Those are definitely some of the best lessons to learn…and the sooner they learn, the better! We have a hard time with the “life’s not fair” one, but it’s soooo true!

  8. Each of these are difficult yet so important! Sadly, there are many adults who have yet to come to terms with these lessons themselves.

  9. These are all so important!

  10. These are definitely great lessons.

  11. These are definitely all lessons I strive to teach my boys, especially manners. I hate seeing children or adults with no manners at all.

  12. Those are all really important lessons to share with your kids.

  13. We are in the middle of learning ALL of these lessons … some days, it’s hard for my preschool/toddler crowd to remember ANY of them.

  14. These are wonderful values to teach all children

  15. These are great life lessons!