Teaching Your Child The Most Valuable Life Lessons

By Elizabeth Summers / June 15, 2018 / No comments
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We all want to be the best parent we can be, to raise our child and prepare them for adulthood in the greatest way. We want our children to grow, develop, and flourish. Yet, we must stop to admit to ourselves, even if we don’t admit it to anyone else, that this isn’t always easy.

What are some of the key life lessons and values to teach our children? This is a huge question that is asked by parents to providers of child care in Brisbane or wherever they live. We’ve put together this brief guide to give you some pointers. Some of the values may be less obvious than others. Check out our top three and see if you agree: 

  1. Honesty

Children are not natural-born liars. Psychological testing has proved that children are incapable of lying neurologically until the ages of two-and-a-half to three years old. But as they learn to develop this trait, they might find it addictive unless they’re taught that it is morally wrong to continuously lie.

Children will lie for all sorts of reasons, but quite often it is to avoid themselves getting into trouble. You should encourage your child to always tell the truth, and set fair punishments for both any case of misbehaving and then for the act of lying itself. Be firm but be fair.

  1. Gratitude

Teach your child manners, like saying “please” and “thank you” at all times when requesting and receiving things. But are you really teaching your child the value of being thankful for what they are receiving? It is good to start early on helping your child to recognise the true value of things, and so that they can learn to be grateful and not take things for granted.

If your child is appreciative of things given to them, it is possible they will grow up to be happier overall, taking gratitude for simple things in life. Even teaching them to be appreciative of a sunny day, or something serendipitous will help your child learn the value of gratitude. You should also remind your child often of how lucky they are for the food, clothes, and warm home environment that they are fortunate enough to grow up in.

  1. Forgiveness

Putting this one across to your child may seem tricky, but it is a very important thing to teach your child from early on. If your child does not learn how to be compassionate and let things go, then they will probably be miserable later on in life, feeling bitter with a chip on their shoulder. We must all learn to forgive and forget. Otherwise, we’ll get nowhere in life.

Whether it is intentional or not, other people in our life will often act badly towards us, and it is better to not hold a grudge against these people, but learn to lose the hurt feeling and be happy. From a young age, you should try your best to lead by example and not let your child grow up resentful, and this will provide them with an overall healthier mindset. 

There is more…

There are countless other life lessons and values you could teach your child, including generosity, courtesy, respect, humility, and responsibility, but we’re only listing our top three. We’re sure that there are others that we haven’t mentioned; every parent and family is different. Yet, for us, the top three values of honesty, gratitude and forgiveness are the most important of the lot.