This morning I watched the brightFuture video which left me in tears… Maybe it’s because I’m pregnant and emotional or maybe it’s because I’ve seen so much hope in these children’s eyes that it made my heart sore. Each one of them are hoping to make a difference. They have dreams and they are determined to change the world!
It made me wonder… Are we as parents setting a good example for our kids?
What are you doing in your daily lifestyle that’s contributing towards creating a better tomorrow? Have you ever heard that we adults are merely caretakers of our children’s tomorrow? So what exactly does that mean?
It’s so disappointing to know that we as adults have lost faith and given up hope – without thinking that what we do today is going to affect our tomorrow. It’s going to affect our kid’s future and the world that they live in.
Right now one of the biggest issues in South Africa is electricity. Every day I visit Eskom’s page, I see a comment that makes me wonder if this person has kids. Yes we are in a crisis and we feel like we need to blame someone for it but how are we helping to solve the problem? They keep saying: “Minimize your electricity usage and turn off your pool pump”… A few do it but many ignore and continue doing what they have always done. Then load shedding hits and everyone is ready to fight and use foul language.
This is the perfect opportunity to show your kids how important it is to be energy-efficient and you can do this by implementing a simple task like turning off the light in the room you not present in.
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These are all important life lessons that we should teach our kids. This is an awesome campaign and I’m heading over there to join.
These are all such great lessons! I think as a parent one of our biggest responsibility is to teach our children how to make the most of the present so they can have the future they want and these lessons are the perfect tools to do that!
We don’t value education here, like we should. I know my girls take it for granted.
I love your list, Shan. I agree with you in that our reactions are often seen and repeated by our children. It is a shame people don’t try and conserve their energy and being a team player by following the rules are important and actions speak louder than words in regards to working together.
I particularly agree with #4 – Admit to mistakes. I think this is best taught by example. When kids see/hear their parents admitting to their mistakes, they learn that it’s OK to admit their own.
These are all great tips. I think half the problem with our world is that kids are growing up without learning most of these.
I love this. This is so everything we all need to be teaching our kiddos. So many great tips. #15 is what my oldest has recently discovered himself!
I’ve made it a point to teach these things to my kids. The world is full of too many bitter, self-entitled followers.
This is an important reminder for all of us. It’s hard to imagine something like life without electricity, but that’s a reality for so many. Thanks for the challenge to think about all of these – I respecially like #13, teaching kids to think about others more than themselves.
I always reiterate the number 6 to my kids. All of these are great and I am contiuously teaching my kids all of these.
It’s easy to do what you’ve always done. It’s not smart though if there is a crisis and once you do it a few times you adapt!
So many important lessons to teach our kids. I absolutely love being a “fun” aunt to my little nephews and I hope they learn something along the way when I take them out for our adventures.
Great advice! I couldn’t agree more! The most important one to me is Love yourself before you love others! This is one I still to this day have problems with!
Valuing education is a big one for me. I think this message really sunk in. They’re super smart now!
Love this whole list. I have bookmarked this post for later so that I can really go over them with my child :]
This is a great list. We work very hard to try to get our kids to think through these things and sometimes we make progress – sometimes we accept that there is a lot of work to do tomorrow!
Those are excellent suggestions. I agree with them all. For the most part, my kids are the best.
Great tips, I decided to take a major step towards my ids futures by sending them to a private school this year.
These are great tips. I remember when I was little teacher’s wrote ‘classroom values’ on the blackboard on day 1, too bad they do not do that anymore. As a former Special Ed teacher it saddens me how little ‘in house’ training some of the students would come to the classroom with.
These are great tips. Parents are their child’s life teachers and have to prepare them for what’s ahead. There is so much happening in the world. I can only imagine what the future generations will face
Such great trips. I always talk to my son about the value of education and dreaming big. And also respect for others.
There are a lot of great lessons here and important tips. The children of today are the leaders of tomorrow, so we need to present them with the best set of morals that we can and most definitely lead by example.
These are all definitely things that a child should be taught! I know I want my daughter to lead a great life!
I feel humility, kindness and forgiveness should be at the top of the list. Everything else falls into place after.
I actually agree with you!
I always taught my kids to be kind to everyone. You never know when a smile is going to change someones whole day. These are great life lessons.
These are all excellent points. I have tried to teach my kids about being caring, helping others, and sharing what we have. I think it is very important to teach them the value of caring for others needs too.
These are some great this we should teach our kiddos! I really want my daughter to value education! It’s so important!
These are all wonderful things to teach kids! I think a lot of adults could stand to read this, lol!
Be open to criticism is a beautiful trait to teach. This list is so motivational, and I need to make sure I teach my son these.
These are all really great lessons. I try to teach my children to be kind, whether it’s smiling, holding a door open or paying it forward.