Each day, we get the opportunity to shape our kid’s life and to literally change their lives. Everything that we say to kids, it sticks with them. Our words become their inner voices and our expectations become their goals.
Every single parent wants to see their kid flourish and become successful in their life. However, it is not that easy to survive in today’s challenging times and world. Parents need to prepare their kids so that they can effectively deal with all the struggles, failures and conflicts that life may throw at them as per the circumstances. Parents need to use their own valuable experiences and knowledge to impart some noteworthy life lessons to teach their kids so that they become fully capable of managing their affairs with confidence, and even without the active support of parents later on in their life.
There is an ample number of skills that our kids are expected to learn and master in order to excel in today’s fast-changing world. Through the same course of time, there are many life lessons for kids that parents should not miss out on teaching their children. These life lessons and values will help your children cope with the challenges of the real world with grace and confidence as they grow up.
In this article, we will focus on the various life lessons and value to teaching your child. So, let us go into a discussion of life lesson tips one by one in details.
Various Life Lessons To Teach A Child:
1. Lesson on Good Manners:
Good manners (R) should be inculcated in children from the day they are born, which will help them to interact with the people they meet in their day to day lives and shapes them into a loving and considerate person. Good manners is a life lesson for kids.
You can teach your children the basics of good manners from the day he or she is born by using and starting with common phrases such as “Please” and “Thank you”. Do make it a habit to use these phrases when he shares his favorite items with you.
However, your child may not be able to express himself during the early years, but they can observe your moves and actions and learn to make sense of the interactions taking place. The more you model the basics of good manners, they will become a part of your child’s life lesson in the time to come.
2. Honesty:
It is quite important to teach the power of honesty to children as this act as an impactable life lesson for kids in their long run of life. The parent should teach the value of honesty to kids while focusing on the consequences of lying too.
You can start imposing honesty in your kids through the example of personal behavior. You need to make a conscious effort to show your kids that they should always strive to tell the truth in every matter of their communication and action.
For example, if you tell your friends that you can’t attend their party as the whole family will be away, and then you head out for dinner with the family, in such case your child will think that it is alright to tell a white lie occasionally. But teach to your child that they should always aim to tell the truth rather than attempting to make others feel better by telling white lies.
3. Talk with Stranger:
This tips of teaching a life lesson to children are very much important as out in the world on their own, our kids will encounter many strangers such as advisors, landlords, store clerks, hairdressers, waiters, managers, and co-workers just to name a few.
Your kids need to know how to look at these people in the eye and have clear communication with them. If possible, even advocate for themselves if needed to be. But if kids have never been encouraged to speak to strangers on their own if their parents have always spoken for them. The kid’s communication skills will be stilted which could be among other things to come across poorly in a job interview or some real situation in life.
4. Priorities:
No matter where your adventures take you, remember it is about the time you are spending together in your family. The bonds that form as you create is a lifetime memory together and that is simply priceless.
If there is one life lesson that I think is most important to teach children, is teaching them the priorities of relationship, it’s that they are important, special people and that family time is the priority. There is nothing in the world that is better than spending time with those you love in your life.
5. Focus:
The ability to focus is increasingly critical in this busy world. Teach your children to walk along a trail limiting the noise beneath their feet, and ask them what they can hear. If they are quiet, they will be amazed by the number of sounds they can hear at once. They will hear the wind rustling through the trees, the birds communicating from a treetop, they may even discover the sound of running water from a babbling creek. The ability to listen and focus (R) is a skill all parents, teachers, employers, and partners can appreciate and want to see in a person in their child.
6. Respectfully Disagree:
Being respectful doesn’t always come naturally to kids on their way of life. They need parents to help to understand the right way to communicate their frustration or disapproval to others.
Parents can help kids to learn how to be respectful by talking to them about appropriate ways to respond. A few ways that parents can help kids learn how to respectfully disagree include:
- Modeling respectful disagreement, either with spouses, friends, or employees
- Letting kids know that it’s OK to disagree but that they need to express that disagreement in a respectful manner
- Coaching kids on the respectful way they could disagree with you
- Make sure kids feel that they are heard when disagreeing with you. Anyone who feels that their position is not being heard is more likely to dig in their heels rather than discuss the issue at hand.
Learning how to talk to other kids and adults in a respectful manner without fear pays dividends in the later phase of life when disagreements arise between spouses, co-workers or employers.
7. Smart Habits:
One of the life lessons for kids is to teach them smart habits. Smart Habits take time to develop over the course of time, and the sooner you can help your kids to develop smart habits, the better off they will be in their life. Some habits are part of general hygiene, like brushing teeth, while others are health-related, like eating right and exercising. Some habits will just make life more enjoyable, like time management and keeping a clean house, etc.
8. The Value of Hard Work:
Life is not all about fun, and there are challenges in each and every step that must be handled diligently. Teach your kid there are so many things you do not just do because you ‘like it’, but you expect long term gains from them. Show some examples of works that are not always your favorite, but you still do them because of the better life you dream of. Teaching your child the value of hard work can be difficult sometimes. Most people start when the child is little or young by making them responsible for doing chores. But if your child is a teenager, there are still more ways to instill a good work ethic.
9. Self Regulate Emotion:
Self-regulation of emotions to kids happens in early childhood. Kids and teens can sometimes get overwhelmed with emotion and may not know how to cope with it. The resorting to anger to express how they’re feeling. The life lesson regarding handling your emotion can be a vital response to the happiness of your kids. There are certain ways to self regulate emotion such as-
- Develop empathy
- Know those bad feelings are temporary
- Learn how to express emotion properly.
- Find a healthy way to regulate your emotion.
- Assert yourself respectfully.
10. Time Management:
The more successful they’ll be in managing one’s time to get out the door for school, prioritizing homework over playtime are life lessons for kids that they need to learn. These lessons will help them later in life when kids need to manage a busy schedule in which work projects are done. Kids will learn best if they’re able to practice time management independently. Children who understand how to prioritize things are well planned and organized. The kids can grow up to have very successful careers in their life. Children can improve their productivity and competence by learning the value of time management. Good time management can also help to increase focus and enhance decision-making abilities in kids.
11. Money Management:
Knowing how to handle money (R) can make a greater difference in how comfortable your child’s life is. If your child never learns to save, he may end up struggling with debt his whole life. There are money managing tips or life lessons for kids that can be taught at a very young age, but if you’ve missed that window or phase, it’s never too late to start. The child should know the value of saving and the consequences of wasteful spending habits as soon as possible. Teach them the importance of budgeting early on in life. It is vital to indoctrinate the concept of contentment and smart ways of spending money.
12. Handling Stress:
Stress is an unavoidable part of life and something that every person experiences. The key is to figure out how to cope with that stress. Do you let it take over your life and become more and more agitated? Or do you have a way to cope with the stress that allows you to use it as motivation? Life lessons will help kids learn to deal with stress in a healthy way such as-
- Know when to ask for help with stress
- Learn your stressor
- Minimize the importance of the stressor.
13. Make a Big Decision:
Once your kids are out in the real busy world on their own, there will be many big decisions to make such as which college to choose, where to work, where to live, and who to keep as a company, etc. It can be tempting to make decisions for your kids such as which classes to take, which sports to pursue, how to spend one’s summer and so on. And while we may feel we know the best making these decisions for your kids, we technically aren’t. Let them get the message that they are not capable of making good choices on their own, weakening their self-confidence. However, parents can act as coaches making it clear that the teen or child is the one who ultimately makes the final decision but providing some guidance and perspective they perhaps haven’t considered to it.
14. Confront Conflict:
The individual who isn’t afraid to confront conflict end up being more successful in both their personal and business relationships. Unaddressed conflict breeds resentment and hinders progress. Seeing your child in a challenging situation with peers or any important adult can be painful for parents. But each time we insert ourselves into conflict big or small, we are robbing our children of the chance to build the social skills which are necessary to address the conflict in a way that is both respectful and self-advocating. This doesn’t mean that we can’t serve as a mentor when kids come to us with their relationship issues or problem. One of the best ways you can be supportive is to try to help our children think through the appropriate words before to use and which steps to take if a situation isn’t getting better as off it should.
15. Compassion and Forgiveness:
Compassion and forgiveness are one of the life lessons to teach your child .start gradually teach your child to extend a helping hand every time when an opportunity may arise. It can be small things like helping in to watering the plants, carrying a bag of groceries for the elderly neighbor, helping someone with directions, etc. Inspiring to take care for others and considering the requests of others firstly may promote the values of compassion and kindness, that also include forgiveness. Encourage your child to harbor feelings of forgiveness towards others. The ability to forgive others is important for peace of mind and for being happy in life.
Parents act as guides who have the responsibility to help their kids positively giving directions through life by providing them with the necessary wisdom, care, knowledge, and information. Imparting important and impactable life lessons and value to teach your child may empower children to become good, upright and successful human beings in their course of life.
