MODELING RESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOR

Last week I wrote about romancing our teens. I want to write for awhile about how to do this. I think it goes without saying that as parents we need to model the behavior we want to see in our kids.  We model behavior for them in so many situations basically; in our personal relationships, in our relationship with them, in our management of business affairs, in how we care for ourselves, in how we handle our emotions, in how we deal with conflict, this could turn into an exhaustive list.  In each situation we show our children how to "be" by what we do.  Sometimes we simply react and that is normal but we want to minimize that sort of reaction as best we can.  I choose to try to always think about how ai will manage any situation before I respond.  I tend to start from the end result as a way to do this.  For example, if I want someone to listen to my idea I realize that this is where I want to end up and a decide what is my best approach for this to happen.  I then develop a plan for achieving this goal.  This is not the only way to do this but what works best for me.  The more we make a decision about how to respond to any given situation the more we are in control of our actions.  In particular, I see so many families where someone gets very angry with a child and yells or is disrespectful.  When we model this behavior that may be the behavior we see back.  If we want our children to grow up to be charitable we need to demonstrate how important that is to us.  If we use financial discretion our children are more likely to show that same behavior as adults.  All of this is about modeling the behavior we want to see in our children.  Watch for what you model.  Sherri