Raising Great Humans: Lead By Example
In today’s current environment and in response to incidents such as school shootings, I see a lot of finger pointing at modern-day parenting. Our kids are too coddled, spoiled, over-indulgent. They’re not taught enough discipline, patience and respect. They don’t know how to play outside, and everyone gets a ribbon. Assume this is all correct and adapting our parenting style is part of the answer to getting kids “back on track.”
Just how do we do that?
Technology is not going away. Media is not going away. Increased standard of living is not going away. What got us to this point in the first place is not going away.
No one drew up a strategy for parenting on a white board and said, “This is the future plan!”
There’s not a flip to switch to “fix” it. And we can’t just make broad assumptions that the compounding effects of indulgent parenting are simply one generation’s fault.
What we can do, though, is have more self-awareness and help lead our little humans to compound parenting’s future influence in a positive direction. Start small: lead by example.
We have to actively listen.
We have to put our phone downs.
We have to live a healthy lifestyle.
We have to experience life independently of our children.
We have to speak more kindly.
We have to be more accepting.
We have to treat our significant others with respect.
We have to pay attention to the booze.
We have to show patience even when we don’t have it.
We have to welcome others into our circle.
We have to show hard work brings reward.
We have to explain financial boundaries.
We have to stop buying every single thing we want.
We have to effectively communicate our feelings.
We have to actually try and care.
We have to be part of the solution.
A million technology restrictions, lectures about parenting “back in the day,” or complaints about the present day won’t change what what loving, leading and including can. It’s our job to pave the path for our kids, and it doesn’t have to be hard.
We have to lead by example.
