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family values. Maybe your children have been fighting and someone's feelings get hurt. This gives an opportunity to teach empathy. When the child overhears a news story about bullying and asks about it, you have the opportunity to teach a child how to stand up to and report bullying along with another lesson in empathy.

A relative passes away and you can use the opportunity to teach the family's traditions for these type of events. You can also teach them about death and the importance of letting family members know you love them before they are gone. The child's best friend's family goes through a divorce, and you use the opportunity to teach your child about the many things that go along with that situation.

Planned teaching...

Each time you take advantage of a teachable moment, you strengthen values in your children. However, you do not always have to wait for those moments to come along. It's alright to plan times where you sit down with your children and teach them values. Just as you use family dinners to teach the child table manners, you can make opportunities to discuss what your family values are and why they're important.

All of these ways to strengthen family values also have another side. By not doing them, you teach your children the opposite values and strengthen them in their lives. If you look for the above opportunites on a regular basis and use them to teach, you will strengthen your family values and your family's values. Regardless of what you feel constitutes a family value, you can strengthen it and create a cohesive family unit. Family values, passed on from generation to generation, give structure and strength to the family with added benefits to society as a whole as those values are extended to others.

Learn more about this author, Angela S. Young.
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