Helping Your Baby Develop Character
How Can We Help Children Learn about Character?
Children learn about strong character when parents and other adults in their daily lives
• set a good example through their ownbehavior and actions,
• set and communicate high standards and clearexpectations,
• coach them on how to be responsible andkind, and
• use literature to reinforce the values of strongcharacter.
Set a Good Example
We are always teaching our children something byour words and our actions. They learn from seeing.They learn from hearing and from overhearing. Theylearn from us, from each other, from other adults inthe community and by themselves.
Children share the values of their parents about themost important things in life. Our priorities andprinciples and our examples of good behavior canteach our children to take the high road when other roads look tempting.
Remember that children do not learn the values thatmake up strong character simply by being told aboutthem. They learn by seeing the people around themact on and uphold those values in their daily lives. In our daily lives, we can show our children that werespect others. We can show them our compassionand concern when others are suffering, and our ownself-discipline, courage and honesty as we makedifficult decisions.
How we conduct our everyday activities can show our children that we always try to do our best to serve our families, communities and country.
The way that we view money and material goodsalso can mold our children's character. If we see ourself-worth and the worth of others in terms of cars,homes, furniture, nice clothes and other possessions,our children are likely to develop these attitudes aswell. Of course, it is important to meet our children'sneeds, but it is also important to help themunderstand the difference between their needs andtheir wants. The expensive jacket that your child has to have may be OK--if you can afford it.
Finally, we need to be consistent in upholding thevalues we want our children to respect and notpresent them with conflicting values. We may tellour children that cheating is wrong, for example, yetbrag to a neighbor about avoiding paying taxes. Wemay say that rudeness to others is unacceptable, yetlaugh when we see that behavior on a favorite TV show.