Start Discussing These Vital Points Early To Build A Strong Foundation
By: Barron Boon
It requires a lot of skills and techniques as well as plenty of patience to raise kids in today’s fast-changing world. Keeping them away from using those digital devices, which are considered unhealthy for their brain development, and showing them how to properly manage their time is not an easy chore. Besides these topics, there are plenty of other important points that you need to discuss with your kids at an early age in order to create a solid foundation of communication and transparency. Let us have a look at some of those vital topics:
1. Disappointment And Failure
No one is perfect, we all make mistakes and face disappointments and failures in life, and children are no exception. When they socially interact with each other they are bound to make mistakes and face disappointments and failures at one point or another.
There is nothing wrong to act as an emotional umbrella and give all the social and moral support to your child under such circumstances; however, it is better to take the role of a guide instead of a “savior”. There is no way you are going to be around your child forever; sooner or later he/she has to learn how to manage such situations. Therefore, the best course of action should be to discuss and teach your kid how to properly manage setbacks, disappointments, and failures.
Next time you kid comes home complaining that the other kids won’t let him/her play with them, instead of just asking about his/her feelings about the situation; you need to discuss on how your child would change the situation to his/her favor.
Pro-tip: Instead of giving your child a shut-up call on silly ideas, you should try to strengthen his/her problem-solving skills by asking for possible solutions. Another important trait that you need to inculcate in your child from a young age is self-comparison. Instead of rating their self-worth on traits such as popularity, academic success, and appearance, you must teach your kids to evaluate and value themselves. You need to teach them that they are human beings and accepting failures and criticism is part of human experience. Research shows that kids who practice self-comparison are able to recover quickly from failures. Such kids are also not afraid of trying new things as they know how to deal with criticism and failures if they fail.
2. Sex And Other Related Topics
While it may seem like an irrelevant subject to discuss with kids at an early age, taking about sex and sexuality is an important subject that is best discovered in the safety of the home. There are plenty of things that you can relate to while explaining sex and sexuality to your kids. While watching a TV show with your kid, if you come across a scene showing a pregnant woman, you can use it to initiate the talk and explain your kid about sex and life. There may be plenty of such teachable moments that will come your way and can be used to initiate a more natural conversation with your kids.
While discussing sex and other sex-related topics with your kids that they will face in their future, you also need to teach them to respect their privacy and that of others. Your child should be able to understand the occasional need for “private time”, he/she should also be able to learn the value and importance of knocking the door before coming in when the door is closed. At the same time, you should also emphasize to your kid that his/her private parts are private and he/she needs to protect them and never allow others to see or touch them except his/her parents or the doctor.
One important thing to keep in mind is that you should follow that same rules yourself that you want your kid to learn; otherwise, the whole exercise will be not as effective.
3. Financial Planning
Although it may sound like a pretty difficult subject to teach your kids, but financial planning is an important subject that you need to start discussing with your kids at an early age. You can start by teaching your kid that money has value and every time he/she spends the money it is gone. It is also suggested that you should try to use cash instead of your debit/credit card while shopping with your kids. Once your kids are able to fully comprehend how cash is used for various financial transactions, you can slowly teach them the same concept using your credit/debit card.
If you want to inculcate the saving habit in your kids, it is always a good idea to make them use objects like clear jars rather than money boxes. Kids are able to develop this habit once they are able to witness and observe the actual accumulation of their saving efforts and it is more visible in transparent jars.
Another great way to support your kids to develop this savings habit is to match his/her saving contribution with yours. For example, if your kid saves $1 a day, you can pitch in $1 from your side. This will not only serve as a reward for his/her efforts, it will also reinforce his/her saving habit.
Once your child fully understands the concept of savings and shows his/her interest in this activity, you can gradually introduce four new objects. You can make him/her distribute the money in four different money jars or money boxes to teach these fours new concepts.
- Jar 1 – Spending Bank – money to be used soon
- Jar 2 – Saving Bank – money to be used later
- Jar 3 – Investment Bank – money to grow
- Jar 4 – Donation Bank – money to give to others
These four new saving concepts will not only provide a better understanding of them on how to utilize their money properly but also teach them to look beyond their own needs and care for the less privileged. If you are interested in teaching your child how to be prepared to face some of the large expenses that lie ahead with careful planning and investment, you need to make sure to visit our site for details.
Sooner or later, your kid is going to face all these challenges in life, why not equip him/her with these skill-sets at an early age