by Perry McCarney

Created on: October 20, 2010   Last Updated: March 06, 2011

We cannot teach our children values with our words. Values must be demonstrated rather than merely spoken. We have to teach our children the values we want them to accept and believe in, by OUR actions. Words are important, but they should be used to explain the values that our behaviors, attitudes and actions demonstrate to our children. Telling our children how they should behave, when we ourselves do not behave that way, is the type of hypocrisy that will almost certainly lose us their acceptance and respect in later years, the teenage years, if not much more and much earlier.

It starts at a very early age. All young, gregarious (social) mammals learn by observing the older members of their social group. Human babies are no different. They learn verbal language by hearing what is said around them and imitating it. But long before this type of communication is effective, they are easily and readily communicating with their parents, older siblings, and all other care-givers through body language and tonal communication. Even those parents raising their first child soon learn the meanings of their gestures and cries, whether they be hunger, the need for a nappy change or just the desire to be held. Although, all said and done, the need to be held is probably the most important of those needs, rather than being a “just”.

Before we can teach our children values, we need to know our own. No matter where in the world we live, this is not necessarily an easy thing to decide for ourselves, let alone our children. For all those parent's with their children's best interests at heart, the prominent desire is to enable their child to both fit in and succeed in their local community. Normally, this should be regardless of the parents' own desires, attitudes and beliefs, despite the fact that that is VERY difficult for any parent to manage.

The simple fact, after all, is that if you are not living in a community that for the most part matches your own morals and ethics, you shouldn't be staying there to raise your family anyway. Nevertheless, circumstances can necessitate families living in “communities” where they are outsiders, or must hide their own beliefs to avoid persecution. Far more often in the world of today than we in the Western world might wish to realize or consider for even our own nations, let alone those less developed nations where such situations are the norm.

The harsh reality of our “global community” is that most

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>