As parents we want the best for our children.
We want them to be healthy, happy, kind, successful and upstanding citizens.
We know they will be faced at some time in their life with difficult decisions and we pray they will make the right decisions.
It is so important to talk to your children about everything, things they may be struggling with, or difficult decisions they may be facing.
Here are some ideas that may help your children to make the right decisions.
Talk with your children whenever you can and teach them to be thinkers.
Ask them to constantly think before they act or speak.
Think about the possible outcome of their actions and decisions.
Ask them to think about how they will feel and how others may feel after their actions and decisions.
Teach them to sometimes put other people's feelings before theirs.
If a certain situation would make them feel good but someone else feel horrible, ask is it worth it? If they are happy but the other person is crying, is it a win-win situation? Ask them to put themselves in another person's shoes or place and see how they would feel.
Always try to keep a positive attitude and be nice to people.
Emphasize that it is so much easier to be nice.
Teach them to be thankful and to always think of others.
Let them see you making good decisions like keeping your cool when someone cuts you off in traffic.
Be a good role model and communicate how you feel.
Discuss daily your decisions and actions and what you and others could have done differently.
Make basic rules of what you should do and should not do.
Talk about making the right decisions and consequences for making wrong ones.
Make family rules like be kind and happy and don't hurt someone else's feelings.
Always follow directions and take care of each other.
We must try to keep ourselves, our family, and our home safe.
When you see them following these rules get excited and reward them.
Buy stickers or gold stars for a chart in your home.
Show them that good things happen when you make good decisions.
While reading a book, or watching a movie where someone makes a bad decision, ask what they could have done differently.
Or what they would have done if they were in their shoes.
Ask how they would feel or how the other people in the book or movie probably feel.
Give different scenarios and ask what they would do, role play.
Explain that we can never go back and change the past, that our decisions in the present can affect our future.
Let's make them good decisions so we won't regret anything or waste precious time.
Emphasize that the present day is exactly that a "present" that we should cherish and enjoy.
Explain that we are not perfect and will make mistakes but what we learn from those mistakes and what we do the next time defines us.
If someone makes them angry or sad, count to 10 or just walk away.
Teach them that we have to control our emotions and tempers.
Explain that we may make a bad decision when we are very angry or sad.
Emphasize that we can't take back unkind actions.
We can apologize and forgive others but it's best to not hurt people in the first place.
Talk before bedtime, ask about their day and how certain situations made them feel.
Tell them about when you were their age and how you may have felt the same way about a similar situation.
Describe what went on in your day, what was good and what was not bad, but not as good.
Talk about any problems you faced and how you handled them.
Let them know that grown ups have feelings and tough decisions to make at times.
Be a good role model, talk through problems and hurt feelings, and stress being positive and happy.
Our children will face tough decisions in life and we hope they will make the right decisions more often than not.
We have to continue to encourage them and talk to them.
Let them know that we are not perfect and that certain situations will make us stronger and a better person.
Teach them to think before they act, to help others, and to not be selfish.
Not being selfish or thinking about others is a good lesson that so many of us need to learn.
When you are constantly thinking, and thinking of others, the right decisions may come a little bit easier to us.