Parenting Tips: Building Values

Ok, so I decided that I didn't want to completely skip today. But, I did want everyone to get a chance to see my Wednesday post, even though it was late going up.  

So for today's parenting tip.. how about taking a few minutes to talk to your child [at their language level] about yesterday's quote from Hubert Humphrey?  How do they treat the "least of them"?

If they are preschool, talk to them about how they treat their younger sibling, or younger neighbor. Start teaching them to reach out to help up.

If they are in elementary school, talk to them about including new kids, left-out-kids, and special needs kids.  Talk to them about reaching out to the older folks in their neighborhood, church, synagogue, etc.

If they are in 5th grade or above, talk to them about it as it relates to how they choose or measure their friends or the kids they admire. How do their friends treat the least of them?  Do they bully them?  Do they help them?  Do they ignore them?  Do they include them?  And on a simpler level encourage them to make get well phone calls to kids out sick for example, or to surprise an elderly neighbor with some homemade brownies they help make.

Help our children learn that it is not just governments that are judged by their choices but each of us as individuals too. For middle school and high school it is often seen on the playground, the lunch room, and the hall ways. It's not just those who actually do the excluding, the bullying, the ignoring.  

Help them learn that not being cruel is one step. But the key is to work against cruelty. Help our children learn to reach out to the excluded and to bring them in.


Image credits: piersdy.wordpress.com, united planet.org, beliefnet.com, takebackyourschools.com, thebradleysblog.blogspot.com