It can be tricky finding a correct balance of traditional values and progressive values, especially when you have young children. We want our children to grow up confident, open-minded, grounded, and all of those characteristics that can make them well-rounded little humans prepared for life. Then everything else has made our world go a million miles an hour-digital technology and social media, and everything else are so readily available that you forget the very basics. The very lessons you want them to retain. You end up focusing all your energy on a life style focused on trying to keep up with the fast pace of our new world, that you can forget about the values that you want them to learn. They should really have a few of these skills by 10 years old at least, so they don’t enter the teenage years completely unprepared. I’m super grateful that my parents made sure for me to have these skills from my early childhood. If not all of them, most of them definitely.
1. Cause And Effect
Children need to know that for every action, there is a consequence. Sometimes those consequences are positive, and sometimes they are very negative. Children need to be able to make their own choices and understand that they are responsible for their actions.
2. Being Open-Minded
We live in a multicultural world where other people’s values, traditions, religions, races, and cultures are often very different from our own. Our children should be taught to respect everyone, regardless of how different they are from their own family structure and values.
3. Valuing Nature
In a world with countless gadgets and forms of technology, we need to remind our children how special nature is. Teach them to respect the world around them, and to enjoy the simple beauty in the outdoors.
4. Understanding Peer Pressure
This topic is something that they will encounter often, especially when entering their teenage years. Teach your child to recognize peer pressure, and instil enough confidence in them that they are able to stand up for themselves and not cave to everything their friends are saying or doing.
5. Safe Technology Skills
Every parent has a different opinion regarding social media and technology use for their children. However, all parents should teach their children how to use technology in a safe, appropriate manner and to speak up when they see something wrong happening in the digital realm.
6. Winning Vs Losing
Many children have a hard time losing. Teach your child that losing is a natural part of life, and it’s not something they need to pout over. On the other hand, your child should learn to handle winning in a gracious manner, so as to not make others feel like failures. On this topic, if your child wants to win at something in life, they need to be taught the value of hard work. If you don’t put in the effort, you’re not going to win.
7. Being Empathetic
Empathy is a skill we’re constantly building upon, but children should be able to feel compassion and empathy towards those around them. Even if they don’t necessarily understand a certain situation, they should be able to recognize that they need to be kind and respectful of other people’s needs and feelings.
8. Basic Emergency Skills
Children should understand how to respond when things go wrong, and that understanding must start much sooner than you think. In fact, even an early age can teach kids when and how to contact 911—what to say, how to remain calm (or maybe calm-ish). It may also be beneficial to sit down and walk through a fire escape plan, not just mention it once and expect they remember. And let them know a couple of safe people (neighbors, family friends) they can say, “this doesn’t feel right,” and reach out to them when you’re not available. If you can, take them through a first-aid course together? That seriously isn’t subject-to-old-movies. It was seriously beneficial to show them how that stuff works in real life, rather than just theory.
9. Confidence
Confidence is one of those things that isn’t really ever complete, right? It’s always in flux – whether you’re a kid or an adult who is still figuring it out. But early on, we can begin to lay the foundation, at least. Kids should understand what it feels like to trust themselves, and ask for help when they perceive something is wrong. That is a huge part. At the same time, we will help them to understand the distinction between authentic confidence and whatever that over-the-top louder, show off version is. Yes, that does exist – confidence doesn’t need to tap you on the shoulder every five seconds.
