Today our “Tips & Reminders” will focus on character development. Although we will mostly focus on the teen years, there will be an excellent insight for use with pre-teens and carry-over to continue appropriate parenting for young adults. (Most of us still receive parenting from our fathers, mothers, and grandparents).
Remember – you are always the parent even though your role and responsibilities will evolve.
In today’s tough and uncertain economic times, everyone sounds the alarm for the “credit crisis,” the “mortgage crisis,” the “banking crisis,” the “unemployment crisis,” etc. All are very real and bring distress to all of us in various ways, but the one “crisis” that may have very well started it all is the “character crisis.”
Too many of the “crisis” facing us today have to do with the lack of character by those in authority. Parents, it is our responsibility to provide the leadership and role modeling for our children to develop the character they need for successful living.
We may all feel helpless with this “character crisis” plaguing our political and business leaders, but the reality is we have 100% control over what goes on in our house! As parents, we can help turn the “character crisis” of today, into a “strength of character” for tomorrow.
Our children are truly our future.
We will conclude this article with a definition and our “tips & reminders” for today.
Character Defined
Merriam-Webster says, “moral excellence and firmness”. MSN-Encarta says, “the set of qualities that make somebody or something distinctive, especially somebody’s qualities of mind and feeling”, and additional dictionary information says, “the strength of mind; resolution; independence; individuality; as he/she has a great deal of character”.
Positive Parenting Tips & Reminders:
Your children are you. You set the tone. The way you live, how you talk, and the way you act has the most significant influence on your child.
You are the expert on your child. Are you perfect? No. Do you make mistakes? Yes. Can you learn something today that will help you be a more effective parent? Absolutely!
Hold them close, but don’t smother them. Love them, but don’t enable them. And, keep it simple with the basic, but sound rules that you enforce consistently. Take care, and use “Positive Parenting”!