building character for kids: Mention What You Want to Strengthen
You have a power.
It’s a mighty and strong power. It has a huge impact on building character for kids.
It can build or tear down, strengthen love or create hate.
With this power you build a person.
It all depends on how you use it.
IT’S THE POWER OF THE TONGUE.
The power of speech is the strongest power that you have in parenting.
Whatever you mention to your kids you strengthen.
How so? You see, kids are born an empty slate. They don’t know anything about themselves.
Whatever you teach them is what they know and will grow up to believe about themselves. If you tell your child day after day that she is lazy, slow, impossible, she’ll grow up to believe that.
Not just believe it on the surface, but believe it deep down inside.
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But if you tell your child that she’s got lots of energy, she’s a smart thinker, so organized and deeply caring about others, then that will be what she believes about herself.
Whatever you believe about yourself becomes your inner dialect. The voice that you hear inside your head, telling you that you can do it – or that you can’t.
The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice.
So the biggest gift you can give your child is to tell him good things about himself every day.
THOUGHTFUL. ORGANIZED. KIND. PROACTIVE. CONSIDERATE. HELPFUL.
There’s a story of a teacher who decided to do a social experiment and he asked his young students, one by one:
“What would make your parents so so happy with you? The happiest in the world if you did these one or two things?”
They answered:
“Put away my things.”
“Clean up my room.”
“Eat my veggies.”
The teacher then took the time to call each one of the 30 sets of parents and told them what he heard. Each set of parents were surprised.
“What? But our son/daughter knows that we want them to be kind and giving and loving, thoughtful, helpful…”
The teacher explained that of course you want your child to be kind and thoughtful and so on, but that’s not what they hear you say all day.
So, for one month we’re going to do an experiment. When you want your child to do something, just point or take them by the hand. Use your speech to tell and praise them about the things that really make you proud.
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Sure enough, a month later the teacher again sat down with each of his young students. One by one and asked them what would really and truly make their parents proud.
“To take care of my little brother.”
“To think how I can be nice to other people.”
“To be thoughtful.”
Make a list of all the traits that you want to strengthen in your child and find times throughout the day and week to point out that they have this amazing trait. Use these kindness and encouragement cards to reinforce these important traits.
Mention what you want to strengthen in your child. This is the biggest gift you can give to your child. This has a huge part in building character for kids - that they will believe good things about themselves for the rest of their lives.
