Character Building: How to Guide Your Children to a Crystal Clear Conscience
Posted: Wednesday, July 13, 2011
by Jean Tracy
KidsDiscuss.com
If you want to raise kids with character and a crystal clear conscience, free of emotional guilt, keep reading. Find out how the right conversations help your kids grow.
Children Don’t Respect Parents without Character
If children hear their parents say one thing but hear them gossip, yell, see them drink too much, or act the opposite of their good advice, kids won’t take their good advice seriously. They won’t respect their parents but they might walk in their same footsteps.
Guide Your Children’s Character by Making Your Values Known
Kids need to see you mean what you say. Show them by:
° Encouraging them and others
° Helping them and others
° Speaking respectfully to them and others and
° Spending meaningful family time together
You can paint a vibrant picture for your kids of how to become a person of character. You must make clear what you value and do it through many short conversations over long periods of time. It’s that easy.
Use Stories to Discuss Your Values:
Then ask your children questions to get them thinking. Start with this story about Abigail.
A Story of Conscience: Why Wrong Doing Is a Heavy Burden
Ask your kids to imagine a girl named Abigail. She stole her money from her mom’s secret emergency stash. Abigail bought a new game.
Her mother asked, “Abigail, Did you see my $30? Abigail said, “No.”
Abigail believed the game would make her happy. But now she can’t play the game in front of her mom. Instead she hides it to avoid being questioned again. She constantly worries about being caught and wishes she never took the money.
The act of stealing and the game itself has become a burden. Abigail’s conscience is bugging her. She tries not to think about it.
Your Action Step ~ Guide Your Children’s Character with Abigail’s Story:
Have a conversation with your kids about the heavy burden stealing has become for Abigail. Further the conversations with these questions:
° Why is Abigail’s conscience bothering her?
° What does she need to do to make things right?
° What advice would you give to Abigail?
How Thoughts and Feelings Can Hurt or Refresh Character
When we do wrong, it can hurt the way we think about ourselves. Guilt can settle in and make us unhappy. Doing good feels right.
A clear conscience is like crystal clean water. It sparkles and refreshes us from within.
What Kids Need to Know:
I know it’s not always easy but let’s talk to our children. Kids need to know the pain wrong-doing causes us and others. Help them understand how doing wrong:
1. Weakens our honesty and increases our dishonesty.
2. Lowers others’ trust in us and magnifies their distrust.
3. Decreases our self-respect and increases our disrespect.
When we lose honesty, trust, and self-respect, we can’t be happy unless we change. As parents we can help our children make that change.
Guide Your Children’s Character by Showing How Doing the Right Thing Frees Us:
1. Thinking clearly about what’s right and what’s wrong give us choice.
2. Doing the right thing makes us feel good about ourselves.
3. Growing character from within makes up strong and happy.
4. Doing the right thing helps us hold our heads up high.
One more thing, let’s “walk the talk” we expect our kids to follow.
Jean Tracy, MSS invites you to receive 80 fun activities when you sign up for her FREE Parenting Newsletter at http://www.KidsDiscuss.com
Guide your Children's Conscience with fun stories, questions, and puzzles from Character Building on Back Talk Street at http://www.kidsdiscuss.com/parent_resource_center.asp?pr_id=kd001 You'll know exactly what to say and do in step by step detail and your children will enjoy discussing the stories with questions they'll love answering.
This Article has been viewed 520 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.