Important Family Values and How to Teach Them to Your Kids

Author: Shubhankar Published on : Nov 01,2022

Having a happy family life isn’t always easy. Within any group of people, there will be differences of opinion, conflicting ideas, and different ways of thinking. It is these differences that can cause tension and conflict in the home. Keeping the peace when you’re living under the same roof again can be challenging for parents and their kids at times. 

But keeping peace in the home doesn’t have to be difficult. Family values are important for keeping relationships healthy, harmonious, and positive. They provide a basis for our actions, beliefs, and practices. Having values as a family also helps us to see beyond our immediate needs, frustrations, or temptations toward what is best for our longer-term well-being. Here are some simple family values that we can all learn from:

1. Honesty

Honesty is the foundation on which all healthy relationships are built. It is a quality that can help a family to be more open and connected. A family that tells the truth to each other is more likely to have trust between them. This is because we know that what we are being told is the truth. Dishonesty at home can be very destructive, creating a climate of suspicion and distrust. It can lead to self-esteem issues and low self-confidence in our children too. It can also lead to feelings of frustration and disappointment between members of the family. This can be harmful to their overall sense of well-being.

2. Support

Support is a crucial family value that ensures that our loved ones are able to thrive and flourish. It is a positive thing that helps us to avoid unhelpful ways of relating to one another. It stops us from trying to control each other and makes us more empathetic. It also helps us to be more supportive when we’re facing hardship. It even makes us more receptive to constructive criticism.

People usually feel emotionally supported when their loved ones are there for them when they need them. They might give them practical assistance, strength, or encouragement. Having support from family members creates a sense of safety and security. It also helps us to build our self-esteem and self-confidence. It can also help reduce stress, anxiety, and feelings of vulnerability.

3. Fairness

Being fair is a crucial family value that helps promote trust, harmony, and goodwill between family members. It is important because it helps us to see and understand other people’s points of view and needs. It helps us to be more compassionate and empathetic toward others. It also helps us to stop judging and criticizing others when they are unable to meet our expectations. Fairness helps us to improve our communication skills and be more open with each other. What does fairness look like in practice? It is about giving others their due consideration. It is about treating others the way that we would like to be treated. It is about being aware of our own biases and prejudices and actively working to reduce them. It is about understanding that we all have different needs and taking these into account.

4. Responsibility

Responsibility is a family value that helps us to take control of our actions and choices. It helps us to be more accountable for our actions. It helps us to be more accountable for others’ actions too. It helps us to understand that we all make mistakes, and when we do, we should apologize and learn from them. It helps us to be kinder to each other when we understand that we are all fallible and make mistakes. 

It helps us to communicate more openly and honestly when we know that we might make a mistake. It helps us to be more fair and collaborative with one another. It helps us to be open to receiving help from others when we need it too. It helps us to be more kind, compassionate and collaborative.

How to teach your kids about family values

Personal values are those characteristics that make us who we are as people. They could be small things like honesty or integrity but also big things such As love and compassion. These attributes will remain hidden until you bring them out in your kids through conscious effort and deliberate action. So here are 10 effective ways to teach your kids important personal values:

1. Be a role model

Kids will follow your example, not your advice or your words. If they see you practicing values they should also be practicing, they will likely adopt those values as their own and make them a part of their daily lives. But if they see you acting in ways that are contrary to the values you want them to adopt, they will emulate you instead and adopt your behaviors. So before you even start talking to your kids about the values they should adopt, make sure you’re modeling them yourself. 

If you want your children to be honest, don’t cheat on your spouse or claim false deductions on your taxes. If you want them to be kind to others, don’t insult their friends or put others down. If you want your kids to be generous, don’t expect them to give you money. And if you want them to be respectful, don’t talk back to your elders or ignore your superiors at work.

2. Teach by asking questions

Kids have short attention spans and are easily bored. If you try to lecture them or talk at length about a certain value, they will get bored and tune you out before you’ve finished your first sentence. But if you teach by asking questions, your children will be forced to sit still and pay attention to you for a few minutes at a time. They’ll have to think about your questions and come up with their own answers, and in the process, they will absorb the values you’re trying to instill in them. Let’s take honesty as an example again. 

If you want to teach your kids to be honest, don’t just lecture them about how important honesty is. Instead, ask them questions that will get them thinking about and exploring the concept. You could ask, "What’s the difference between telling the truth and lying?" or "Why do you think honesty is important?"

3. Help your child feel valued

Self-worth and self-esteem are interconnected; one directly affects the other. If your children feel valued, they will have higher self-esteem and more confidence in themselves. If they feel unimportant and unspecial, they will have lower self-esteem and feel worthless. You can help instill a sense of value in your children in many ways. One of the best ways is to praise them for the things they do well, no matter how small. If your child gets an A on a test or brings home a good report card, praise them for their excellent work and let them know how proud you are of them. If they do something kind for another person, praise them for their thoughtfulness and let them know how much it means to you.

4. Talk about the consequences of making good and bad choices

When your children make mistakes, and you correct them, you make an important point: making a mistake is not the end of the world. But if you don’t follow it up with a discussion about the consequences of the mistake, your children will miss the important message you are trying to send them. When your kids make a mistake, don’t just correct them and let it go. Talk to them about the consequences of the mistake they made. 

Let’s say your child got a bad grade on a test. You correct them for getting a bad grade, but you don’t talk about the consequences of getting that bad grade. You put the test away and forget about it. But the bad grade remains; it’s still there, hanging over your child’s head. So go back to your child and tell them what will happen as a result of getting a bad grade. Perhaps they’ll have to work harder in their next class to make up for the bad grade. Or maybe they will have to do their homework for the next class early to catch up.

Conclusion

Kids are impressionable. They are like fresh blotting paper that can absorb and retain all manner of information. They are also incredibly receptive to the things you tell them. So if you want to instill important personal values in your children, you need to be deliberate in your approach and consistent in your efforts.

The best way to ensure this happens is by teaching your kid family values from an early age. These are guiding principles that have stood the test of time. They shape a person’s character and outlook on life. And when we help our kids understand their authenticity, it gives them confidence for life.  Visit Parentalmastery.com for more information, tips, and advice to help your children grow and develop into capable adults.