Mommy Tina's

The home is the best place for children to learn good values. Values guide our behavior and help us make decisions between right and wrong. Our sense of values determines the way we spend our time and money. Priorities in life are based on what we value.

Parents teach children their values by what they say and how they act. Therefore, parents should agree on what values are important. Certain values, such as honesty, courtesy, and service, should be part of every family’s values. Children who learn and follow moral values are more likely to make wise decisions when they are older. Teach your children that decisions they make while they are young affect the rest of their lives.

Parents who do not teach their children correct values deprive them of solid basis for approaching life. Gordon B. Hinckley said, “The home is the seed bed of all true virtue. If proper values are not taught in the home, they are not likely to be taught at all.”

The following ten suggestions can help us teach our children proper values in our own homes:

1. Give Our Children Responsibilities in the Home

2. Help Our Children Set Goals

3. Teach by Example

4. Study Our Family History

5. Serve with Our Family

6. Establish Family Traditions

7. Monitor the Media

8. Look for Teaching Opportunities

9. Decide Which Values Are Nonnegotiable

10. Allow Children to Participate in Family Decisions

The power to choose is one of the greatest gifts God has given humanity. Children who are allowed to share in family decisions will be more willing to obey family rules.

Allow children to make decisions that are appropriate for their ages and responsibility levels. This provides them freedom but does not sacrifice family values.

Explain to children the reasons for having family rules and the values attached to those.

The following can be done as a family:

• Set a curfew.
• Establish rules about inviting friends to the house.
• Plan activities and vacations.
• Divide and assign household chores.

* From a Pamphlet of the same title by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Our children are our responsibility.

Our Heavenly Father entrusted them to us, and our sacred duty is to take care of them physically and spiritually. We are to nurture them not just with food but with everything that they need in order to prepare them to become responsible adults. We need to teach them good values – honesty, integrity, charity, humility, dedication, commitment, industry, thrift, kindness, compassion, and many more.

In time they, too, will become parents as well as leaders in our society. If we prepare them well, they will be equipped for the tasks in front of them; but if we fail to do our part, they will surely fail in theirs too, and we will be held accountable for it.

As parents, we are to make sure we teach them well and good, because …

Children Believe. They believe what we say. They are interested to the truth. As parents and adults we have a sacred obligation to teach them correctly about everything that they need to know to live a good and honorable life. In teaching them, we have to do so simply and clearly, with language and examples that they can understand.

Children take things literally. Everything is real to them. It is therefore very important that as we communicate through our words and our actions, we make sure that they understand what we are teaching them. We have to make certain that they do not misunderstand us so let’s be open and allow them to ask questions.

Children will follow our example. We are always teaching, even when we are not aware of it. We often teach more by our attitude and example than by what we say; and children easily copy what they see. This is most likely the reason for the saying “our children are a reflection of who we truly” …