There is a phrase that I have recorded on fire since I am a mother: "Children see, children do." If I want my daughters to be supportive, to love reading, to play sports, it is we, the parents, who must know how to educate by example. We can explain and expire all its benefits, but without a doubt the best way to transmit a teaching is through example.
If you really want to leave valuable teaching in your children, there is at least eleven things you should do to educate by example. And we not only talk about good habits, but also about values such as honesty or the way they relate to other people. Because if I want my daughters to be good people, I also have to be, or at least try to be better every day.
Read
How do we want the child to become a great reader if nobody at home reads? Impossible. The example in reading is essential since they are very young, starting by reading a story every night. Although they still cannot read, we are instilling in them the love of reading.
As they grow, they will feed that love only if they see that you also read. Maybe you have to change habits, turn off the TV and go back to reading before bed or take a book before the phone, but it is certainly a change that everyone will end up thanking.
Eat healthy
There are parents who do not share any meal of the day with their children, and this negatively influences their health, as well as emotionally, of course. How are we going to instill good eating habits if we don't eat with them? Another important issue comes into play here: the time we share with them.
Share the table with your family and eat a healthy diet they are teachings that we must give, more than ever, through example. It is proven that those children whose parents eat a healthy diet are three times more likely to eat it than those whose parents ate unhealthy foods.
Exercise
The practice of exercise is a lifestyle. You cannot pretend that your child is a great athlete if you spend all day sitting on the couch. For them to move and adopt it as a habit of life, parents also have to get moving. When parents and children practice exercise together as a family, the tendency is for children to be more active, in addition to being very beneficial for everyone.
Be supportive
How do we want a child to be supportive if the parents are not able to look beyond their noses? They do not need great heroic feats, it is enough to teach them small actions that in addition to helping others, will make them stronger as people.
There are many ways to do it, but you can start with some gestures, from helping an old man to cross the street, donating the clothes they already have left or giving away the toys they no longer use. Solidarity well learned, lasts a lifetime.
Be tolerant
A value that I think adults are losing and we still have time to change it, for the sake of those around us and for that of our children, who learn from our example.
Respecting the opinions of others is something that children should learn practically since they start talking, and how are they taught to be tolerant? Exact. So are we, and not only out doors, but starting with our own children.
To be nice
Why have we lost the good habit of saying phrases like "good morning", "good afternoon", "good night", "have a good day"? It seems a thing of the past, but it is more a matter of good education. Respond politely, although the question does not please us in the least, and teach them to discuss with height, although we disagree are examples that we would have to make a little more effort to give them.
Let's recover kindness and spread it to our children.
Love nature and animals
My daughters are "bicheras", and especially "dogs", because both their father and I like animals very much. It may be marked in the DNA, but above all it comes through the example.
Fostering in children the love of nature and animals is not a teaching that can be given from a blackboard, but through example. Teach them to observe the wonder of nature, the changes that occur in it, the behavior of animals, respect them as living beings ... Even if you don't believe it, parents can be great teachers of science or geology.
Love themselves
Educating them in self-love is essential for our children to be happy and full people, a teaching that cannot be lacking in childhood. And how to teach them self-love? Well letting them know that we believe in them and their ability, and that nobody has the right to harm them. Of course, and since children are small sponges that absorb everything they live and see, we must first put it into practice with ourselves. The idea would be: love yourself more so that your child loves himself more.
Be a good consumer
Are you wasteful? Are you impulsive Do you think about it a thousand times before buying? Well, those are behaviors that children also imitate from parents. How do you want your child not to be a consumer if we succumb to all the temptations that the market generates for us?
The responsibility of being a good consumer It is a teaching that will be grateful for life, and not only for the pocket, but also for what "He who has more is not happier, but he who needs less".
Ecological awareness
We cannot pretend that children save the planet if as parents we are not able to teach them basic notions of environmental education. Ecological awareness is acquired through the example they see at home, at school, in their neighborhood and in their closest environment. It is enough with simple gestures that we can put in place how to recycle (and not only talk about garbage), control the consumption of water and electricity, take care of the forests, avoid using the car whenever possible ... Once again, we have to start to do it, if we don't do it yet, for our children to imitate.
To be honest
How can they not tell lies if we have just lied to the neighbor in the room or we are left with money that we have found in the street? Just look at the news to realize that honesty is obviously a very low value today.
Tell the truth, be decent, reasonable and fairIt is, without any doubt, a teaching that parents should transmit through the example every day. When our children have an honest reaction, we are proud that they are able to put that quality into practice, but of course, for them to do so, we have to do it too.
