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9 Important Values to Teach Children

July 10, 2017 | Leave a Comment

important values to teach childrenParents have the greatest privilege in the universe. We have the opportunity to raise kids – to construct important values to teach children and witness the result. At the end of the day, they are individuals – separate from us – who have their own minds, hearts, hands, feet, wishes, and skills. Even so, seeing my kids become the people they were meant to be is a delight.

I love seeing my young daughter spin around in our living room as a ballerina. Then I see my son carefully line up his trains or the way he tends to his stuffed animals when one of them gets “hurt” and needs a bandage.

From a young age, our children show us so many beautiful values they explore. However, kids enter the world with a free will, which means that “Me First” mentality kicks in pretty early. It is our job as parents to start conversations about right living – about healthy values.

Here are a few topics for you to begin the conversation with your child:

9 Important Values to Teach Children

“Making the decision to have a child – it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ”
― Elizabeth Stone

Work Ethic

Understanding that money comes from labor is a fundamental lesson that will stay with your child through adulthood. You can employ him or her to do chores around the house, bring up topics to discuss, or simply lead by example in your own field of work.

Giving

Kids are such natural givers. Somewhere along the way, we figure out it’s really fun to just keep what we have and use it on ourselves. Tapping into their young minds and encouraging things like gratitude, contentment, and giving can also stay with your child for life. It may mean letting her see you tip extra for the server or give to a charity or hand

Kindness

This world is full of cruelty, especially on the internet. Our kids are among the first generation growing where this level of connection and advancement in technology is simply a way of life. Learning to offer a kind word or do something nice at a young age will help your children counteract the ever-rampant negativity out there today.

Prioritizing Family

It’s so easy to take one’s family for granted. As children grow, it’s vital for parents to help them understand the value of keeping family first. There will be a thousand things that will try to take its place – especially when your children reach adulthood.

Integrity

As kids age, they have more and more responsibility placed on their shoulders. Therefore, they have more opportunities to do things when others aren’t hovering over their shoulders. Whether they’re male or female, what they decide in those moments matters so much more than they realize.

For example, Ellen recently tested her audience members by placing hidden cameras at the free gift booth. Before the show, each member was told she could select one free item from the table. One woman was caught on camera taking multiple items and returning to the booth two more times for more! Ellen not only showed the tape to the millions of viewers of her show, but she then called out this audience member and made her sit on a stool in “Ellen Jail” right in front of everyone.

Sure it’s a light-hearted example, but the message runs deep. Check out Ellen’s reaction to the woman who robbed her booth here:

https://youtu.be/Cn3AgNC2TSk

Capacity to Apologize

My kids’ favorite movie is “Moana.” They love the music and love racing around the house pretending to be the demigod Maui shouting “Chee-hoooo!”

One of my favorite parts of the film is actually toward the end when Maui comes face to face with someone he robbed. At first, he tries to laugh it off until he sees the hurt look in the other character’s eyes. I love what happens next. He looks her in the eye and says, “What I did was wrong. I have no excuse. I’m sorry.”

What a great example for kids to see the power of owning up to their actions. To be held responsible for those choices. It’s another life lesson that would likely stay with them for life.

Try Your Best

Could we please dissolve the old adage “Practice makes perfect”? Talk about setting unrealistic expectations for kids. Now hear me out – I’m not a big fan of participation ribbons or removing competition altogether. It’s important to learn how to win AND lose with dignity and respect; however, walking up to the plate with perfection as the goal isn’t going to fly.

Remind your kids to try their best, and then remind them again. And again. Just keep that flag flying!

Money Management

So many 18-year-olds graduate with almost no money management skills. Then, they fill out paperwork for colleges and make the largest financial decision they’ve ever made which typically lands them in debt up to their eyebrows. Being equipped with the head knowledge and habits of handling money while they’re under your roof will make their entire adult life completely different.

Caring for the Environment

Your kids may not grow up wanting to major in environmental studies, but educating them about how to be less wasteful should start in the home. Think about your own habits, like not littering and sorting out recyclables. Your kids will see how you treat the world around you. Taking time to talk through those things or initiate something unique like planting a garden or using compost will help them learn skills to better protect their environment.

Final Thoughts

There are so many more values we could cover. In fact, it may seem overwhelming some days. Just remember these happen one day and one conversation at a time.

What’s on your list of important values to teach children? Is it on this list? Let us know in the comments below.

Filed Under: Family Time, Growing Up, Healthy Living & Eating, Parenting Tagged With: Generosity, important values to teach children, life values for kids, teach your children, work ethic

My Mission if I Choose to Accept it… Couponing

June 3, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Couponing! I talked about it in my extreme couponing post. I mentioned how my husband and I have attempted to use coupons — and how we just haven’t been very good at it. BUT, something inside of me  keeps pushing me to really give a go. It could be all the episodes of Extreme Couponing that I’ve been watching,maybe it has something to do with the fact that my Mom hands me a stack of coupons every time I see her, maybe it’s the blogs I’ve been reading, or maybe it was my friend telling me how much she saved and how she did it.

My guess is that it is a combination of all of these things. So — I have now made the decision to really try this coupon thing and see where it takes me. Now, before you all start worrying about me — I’ll just say upfront that I won’t be stock piling a bunch of stuff, or buying things I know my family and I will not be able to use within a reasonable amount of time (unless of course I plan on donating it or something). My husband has clutter-phobia!

Okay fine — maybe he’s not afraid of clutter but it drives him nuts and makes it makes him grumpy. So even if I wanted to store toilet paper under the beds, or soup in the fireplace — he would have none of it.

Let’s Get Started

After speaking with my friend – who has shared some of her couponing tips with me – I decided to see what I could do. Sunday morning, I headed to the store and bought two newspapers. I figured if I’m going to do this, I might as well make sure I had a good amount of coupons. I really wasn’t confident enough in my abilities to buy five papers — which I am told (by my mother-in-law who took a couponing class) is the amount of papers serious coupon experts purchase.

Got Coupons ~ Now What Do I do?

I spent some time comparing the coupons I had on hand (that my Mom had given me the week before) with the weekly ads. One store had double coupons. Sweet!

I was also elated to discover that there are wonderful people who do the coupon comparisons for you  — and it’s free. All you have to do is follow their blog. There are two ladies in my area – that I follow – who do this. I have “liked” their pages on Facebook and these fantastic coupon mavens post a LOT of great stuff. Not just grocery deals either. They post restaurant, department store, and internet deals as well.

If you do some research and I am sure you will find someone in your area who does this too. I would start by checking out Facebook and twitter — this will then link you directly to their blog.

An example of what I can find on my favorite coupon web sites is this:

American Beauty Pasta $1.25/$0.75
$0.55/1 Quick Cook coupon from 4/17 Smart Source (if included)
Bottom line: $0.20

She tells me the store, the coupon, and the date it was in the paper. Then she includes my most favorite part — the bottom line (how much I have to spend).

I don’t know all of the ins and outs of couponing and I don’t pretend to, but I am learning and as I do I’ll share some of my experience with you.

One thing I have learned, is that couponing people are super sweet and love to pass the savings on to others who love to save. My most recent example of this is happened when I was at the grocery store on Monday. I was feeling pretty good about myself because I found a fantastic deal on Raisin Bran Crunch cereal. I also had two coupons with doublers. As I was standing in line, the woman next to me saw that I had the coupons in my hot little hands. She ended up giving me 2 better coupons, telling me that if I bought four boxes of cereal — I would get an in-store coupon (aka Catalina) for a free milk. She even saved my place in line as I ran to get the other two boxes! THEN she made sure I had the doublers because she was going to offer me some of hers! I saved even more money, got even more cereal AND a free milk all because of her generosity. Very nice. She even apologized for all the coupons (she didn’t really have very many actually) and said that she and her husband were taking their kids to Disneyland because of the money she saves couponing. I say…sign me up! 🙂

Do you have a coupon story to share? Any tips or a favorite couponing web site?

Brian
Brian

Brian is the founder of Kids Ain’t Cheap and is now sharing his journey through parenthood.

 
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Filed Under: Coupons, Money and Finances, Shopping Tagged With: Couponing, Coupons, Generosity

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Basic Principles Of Good Parenting

Here some basic principles for good parenting:

  1. What You Do Matters: Your kids are watching you. So, be purposeful about what you want to accomplish.
  2. You Can’t be Too Loving: Don’t replace love with material possessions, lowered expectations or leniency.
  3. Be Involved Your Kids Life: Arrange your priorities to focus on what your kid’s needs. Be there mentally and physically.
  4. Adapt Your Parenting: Children grow quickly, so keep pace with your child’s development.
  5. Establish and Set Rules: The rules you set for children will establish the rules they set for themselves later.  Avoid harsh discipline and be consistent.
  6. Explain Your Decisions: What is obvious to you may not be evident to your child. They don’t have the experience you do.
  7. Be Respectful To Your Child: How you treat your child is how they will treat others.  Be polite, respectful and make an effort to pay attention.
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