Empower, improve & encourage

Parents want their children to be the architects of their own character crafting, while the parents accept the responsibility of being architects of the environment, both physical and moral. There is a need to create an environment in which children can develop habits of honesty, generosity, and a sense of justice. For most parents, the greatest opportunity they have to deepen their own character is through the daily blood, sweet and tears of struggling to be good parents. 


Here are the new parenting commands for this day and age:


1. Put  parenting first
    This is hard to do in a world with so many competing demands. Good parents consciously plan and devote time to parenting. They make developing their children's character their top priority.
2. Review how you spend the hours and days of your week
    Think about the amount of time your children spend with you. Plan how you can weave your children into your social life and knit yourself into their lives.
3. Be a good example
    Human beings learn primarily through modeling. You can't avoid being an example to your children, whether good or bad. Being a good example, then, is probably your most important job.
4. Develop an ear and an eye for what your children are absorbing
    Children are like sponges. Much of what they take in has to do with moral values and character. Book, songs, TV, the internet, and films are continually delivering messages-moral and immoral - to children. Parents must control the flow of ideas and images that are influencing their children.
5. Use the language of character
    Children cannot develop a moral compass unless people around them use the clear, sharp language of right and wrong.
6. Punish with a loving heart
    Today, punishment has a bad reputation,. The results are guilt-ridden parents and self-indulgent, out-of-control children. Children need limits. They will ignore these limits on occasion. Reasonable punishment is one of the ways human beings have always learned. Children must understand what punishment is for and know that its source is parental love.
7. Learn to listen to your children
    It is easy for us to tune out the talk of our children. One of the greatest things we can do for them is to take them seriously and set aside time to listen.
8. Get deeply involved in your child's school life
    School is the main event in the lives of our children. Their experience there is a  mixed bag of triumphs and disappointments. How they deal with them will influence the course of their lives. Helping our children become good students is another name for helping them acquire strong character.
9. Make a big deal of the family meal
    The dinner table is not only a place of sustenance and family business but also a place for the teaching and passing on of our values. Manners and rules are subtly absorbed over the table. Family mealtime should communicate and sustain ideals that children will draw on throughout their lives.
10. Do not reduce character education to words alone
      We gain virtue through practice. Parents should help children by promoting moral action through self discipline, good work habits, kind and considerate behavior to others, and community service.