Important Skills To Teach Children
“Has your child ever thrown a temper tantrum at the check register when you said no to a candy bar?” (Sheldon) Most parents have had this experience with their child at some point, and at the time the parent may feel like their child will never grow out of this. There are things parents can teach their child to make these situations become less frequent. Parents should teach their child how to deal with these situations, and respond with a better reaction, which comes from self-control. However, sometimes parents can fail at teaching their child these important skills and values because they are more concerned about being their child’s friend, and not being their parent which can lead them into influencing their child in the wrong ways. Even though sometimes parents can influence their children in the wrong ways , one of the most important skills and values parents can teach their children is self control because having self-control can lead to better social skills, and money management skills, and with having these skills and values will lead the child to a more successful life.
In today’s society more and more parents are becoming more concerned about being their child’s friend then parenting them.”Teaching self-control has become a big focus for early childhood education.” (Shute) Parents need to focus on teaching their children these skills and values in the child’s younger years. With failure to teach their children these skills when they are younger can cause the child to have a more difficult future. Parents need to step up and stop trying to be friends with their children when they are younger, in order to teach their kids the skills that will mold their future.
When parents have the wrong attitude toward their child, their negativity can play a big role with the influences the parent has on them. “The informal education that the family provides for their children makes more of an impact on a child’s total education than the formal education system” (Northrup) Parents are the child’s first teachers, and if parents fail to teach important skills to their child, it could possibly affect their child’s future. “Having a caring parent in a child’s life is one of the strongest influences towards the child having a successful life.”(Northrup) If parents fail at this, their child will suffer in the long run because of the lack of the strong positive influences they need from their parents. “A new study says that self-control makes the difference between getting a good job or going to jail, and we learn it in preschool.” (Shute) Parents desperately need to be a part of their child’s life, teaching them the important skills and values that will shape the rest of their life. Children need their parents to be there for them and teach them the skills and values needed, so they can have a successful life.
Even though parents can influence their children in the wrong ways, one of the most important skills and values any parent can teach their children is self control. Having self control can lead to better social skills and money management skills. Self control is something that needs to start being taught at a young age. “By learning self-control, kids can make appropriate decisions and respond to stressful situations in ways that can yield positive outcomes” (Tyna). When kids learn this at younger age, it will only benefit them in the years to come. They will be able to make better decisions, and respond to difficult situations in a way that will help them gain a better and brighter future. For example, “if you say that you’re not serving ice cream until after dinner, your child may cry, plead, or even scream in the hopes that you will give in.”(Tyna) With self control, the child can see that throwing a huge fit will only get the ice cream taken away, but if they wait patiently without having a temper tantrum, they will get their ice cream.
Another example that shows that having self control can lead to better social skills and money management skills is, ” It is widely believed that the everyday experiences in relationships with their parents are fundamental to children’s developing social skills “(Mize) Parents need to take advantage of this precious time they have with their children. When their child is young, it is important to start being a positive influence in their lives. Being a positive influence can give their children the confident they may need to develop better social skills. Children look to their parents to learn these important skills, so when children looks to their parents for social skills, the parents need to be a positive influence. With self control, parents will see their child stand out with their social skills among other children, and they will be able to use these social skills in whatever they do in their future.
Along with having better social skills, children with self control will also make wiser money management decisions. “In addition to providing for their children’s immediate needs, parents need to provide for their children’s future temporal needs by teaching them to be financially independent adults.”(Sheldon) Teaching your child how to manage money will only benefit them later in life. Parents, who teach their child how important managing money is and how to manage it, will have great success in their adult years. If children learn to make smarter money decisions now, they will take that with them the rest of their lives. “Teaching children money-management skills takes practice and patience. Both parents and children will have to make adjustments and correct themselves when they make mistakes.” (Sheldon) It will take time and patience for both the parent and child when they are learning the importance of money and how to handle money. “Learning about how to manage money can start as young as the age of 3 years old.”(Sheldon) It is never too early for parents to start teaching their child. So, whenever kids start asking and wondering about money, it is a good time to start teaching them about the importance of making wise money decisions. It does not matter the age that parents start instilling these skills into their child because they will grow with them all though their life, making the children more successful in their future.
The most important skills and values parents can teach their children is self control because having these skills/values leads to better success later in life. Parents teaching these values to their children at a young age will help them, “The children who struggled with self-control as preschoolers were three times as likely to have problems as young adults.”(Shute) Learning self control at a younger age will simply put the child ahead and make their future a more successful one. Parents have the responsibility to teach their children these skills that will ultimately play a part in how successful the child’s success is later in life.
Another example that shows that having these skills/values leads to better success later in life is: “The later you wait in life to try to learn self-control skills, the more problems you have to reverse and overcome.”(Shute) Parents need to start instilling this knowledge when their child is young so the child can start learning how to make important decisions based the right choice not on how they feel. Having self control can help them either if it is with their social skills or with money management. Having these skills will also benefit them their whole life, not just when they learn them. Having good self control is a lot like learning math, starting off with the basic adding and subtraction, and then go into more depth from there. With self control by learning the basics first, it then allows learning more skills because of the presence have self control.
So, parents need to start teaching their child these important skills and values at a young age. Some of the important skills and values parents can teach their children are self control for two main reasons. First, having self control can lead to better social skills and money management skills, but most importantly, having these skills and values will lead to better success later in life. It is important that these skills and values are taught to children when they are young. Parents are the first teachers any child will have, and they need to set the example for their child. Parents should live a life that they want to see reflected into their children. When these skills and values are beginning to be taught, parents need take the time however long it make take, letting the child know that they care and are doing this for them. Children will not like the process in which it takes to teach self control. There will be many fits thrown, but at the end of it all parents will see their child having a better and brighter future. So, having a child with self control, parents will no longer be the ones with the screaming child at the cash register having a melt down because they are not getting what they want.
