Women welcome the sacrifice. You love your children. You love your life and you’re want to do all you can to raise, healthy, well-adjusted, happy and wholesome kids. Children need love. Children need boundaries. Children need someone to look up to and learn from. Your job, as a parent, is to lead by example — modeling the kind of behavior that you want your kids to adopt. Becoming a role model, of course, often means taking a close, honest look at how you live your own life (uh-oh).
This kind of self-examination can be uncomfortable, at times, but it’s absolutely necessary for the well-being of your child. If you’re ready to step up to the plate, here are 10 ways to be your child’s best and most influential example of character and success:
“This is what awesomeness looks like”
- Be your best: When it comes to your kids, role-modeling is everything. Your children pay attention to everything you say and do, and they imitate your words and actions. Keep in mind how easily they are influenced. “Be your best,” but what does that really look like in a true, value-based, and practical way? Keep reading!!!
- Take care of yourself: Being your best starts with taking good care of yourself — getting enough sleep, making time to exercise, eating good food and finding healthy ways to manage negative emotions without lashing out. Depleting yourself by constantly putting other people’s needs first is not a good move. That’s not the kind of future you want for your daughter do you — so don’t model it, yourself, okay? When you take time out and spend money on fitness, nutrition and staying well, it’s a sacrifice and one that means a lot to your children.
- Be dependable: You don’t want to raise a flaky kid who lets people down — so make sure to model dependability. That means coming through for your child (“I promised that we’d going to the park after you cleaned up your room, so let’s go!”) instead of letting work or other obligations always come first. It also means coming through for friends, family, colleagues and everyone else in your life, including yourself.
- Check in with yourself: “Checking in” to evaluate your own behavior is a beautiful practice — and it’s healthy for your child to see and hear you doing it, too. You can open up conversations with your child by saying things like: Lately, I’ve been thinking: I might be watching too much TV. I’m feeling a bit tired. I’m think that I need to start eating better food. Today I felt so angry! I think it’s time for me to look at how I handle conflict with others. WARNING: Don’t JUDGE, just notice. Don’t put yourself down out loud Then, invite your child into the conversation to share some things that he or she would like to explore or improve, as well. By doing this, you’re reinforcing the idea that being an awesome person is an ongoing process. There’s always room to learn and grow!
- Be loyal: We live in an era where removing a “friend” from your life can happen at the touch of a button. Show your child what true loyalty looks like — showing up to help a friend in a time of need, or sticking with a local business owner who has served your family for years, instead of hopping over to the newest cheap-o mega-store.
- Be attentive: As children get older, they push for more independence (“Mom, please don’t come in my room!”) and that’s to be expected. But as a parent, your job isn’t to be a “cool friend.” Your job is to be a parent. Which means being attentive and making sure that your child isn’t in harm’s way — even if your child thinks you’re “annoying.” [***SAVE-ALERT***] This is some awesome language to practice: “You are so precious to me, and it’s my job to make sure that you’re healthy and safe, always. I hope that one day, you’ll understand why it’s my job to be so attentive, and to take care of the people I love. I hope that one day, if you have children, you’ll be concerned and attentive, too.”
- Teach (healthy) skepticism: Children are naturally trusting and they look eagerly to their surroundings for role models. Teach them that not all “role models” are reliable. Show them what it looks like to have a healthy skepticism and to “follow your instincts.” For example, at a car dealership, you could privately turn to your child say: “This man says that this is the best deal in town, but I have a hunch he might not be correct. Let’s check out some other dealerships. It’s important to trust your gut.”
- Fess up when you’ve done something wrong: When you do something wrong — say, barking angrily at your spouse because you’re grumpy and hungry — don’t make excuses. Take responsibility and admit that you did something unacceptable. It’s healthy for your child to see examples of grown-ups taking responsibility for their actions — and enforcing “consequences” to correct inappropriate behavior. “I wanted to go out and get a manicure, today, but I yelled at your father and that caused a big fight. Instead, we’re going to stay home and spend some time talking, together. We’re going to figure out a plan so that this doesn’t happen again.”
- Enforce consequences when your child does something wrong: So many parents are hesitant to enforce consequences when a child (of any age) breaks a rule, but consistency is essential.When your child does something unacceptable, you must implement an appropriate consequence. This is connected to lesson #3: Be dependable. Children (young and adult) thrive on consistency and reliability. Without it, they invariably feel aimless and unsupported.
Ladies, no matter what age your children are, it’s never too late to model the behavior you want your children to adopt.
Source: Dr. Suzanne Gelb post on HuffingtonPost.com | Edits by the Fit Chicks! team
