How to Prepare Your Kids to Make Smart Choices in Adulthood
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A Guest Post By Amanda Henderson Of SafeChildren.Info
When your children are little, you make practically every decision for them. But as they enter elementary school, they’ll need to start applying their own critical thinking skills to make healthy choices. And when your kids are in middle school or high school, you’ll want to know that they’re capable of looking out for themselves. It can be hard to know how to instill these skills, so here are some strategies from Amalgam Martial Academy for teaching your kids how to make good, healthy decisions.
Keep Your Eyes on Your Own Goals
Talking to your kids about leadership, decision-making, and working towards your goals isn’t enough. You also need to show them the importance of these practices in action. For example, maybe you’re unhappy in your job, and you want to retrain for a new field. Going back to school as a parent takes serious time management skills, but if you’re organized and motivated enough, you can earn a new degree.
Choosing an online degree program makes it possible. Model for your kids that they should find something they enjoy doing that can also help them to live comfortably. Talking through your choices regarding going back to school can be a great learning experience for them.
Sports can also be a great way to help your kids set goals and pursue them. Martial arts in particular are great for conflict resolution and managing emotions. Consider enrolling your kids in Amalgam Martial Academy.
Emphasize Leadership Skills
Impart leadership skills to your children through hands-on, real-world learning. In order to become effective leaders, your kids need to know how to put these skills and principles into action! Show them that being positive and looking towards where you want to be are major factors in being effective leaders. And that it’s good to be demanding of the teams you lead, but that you should never be demeaning.
Momtastic recommends volunteering together. If your children are school-aged or older, they can accompany you to volunteer or even sign up for volunteer shifts independently. They’ll learn the value of teamwork and see the impact of their contributions.
You can also give your kids chores that they are responsible for, like feeding the dog or doing laundry. Show them how to do these things and help them understand how long they take so that they can budget them into their schedule.
Demystify Controversial Topics
It’s easy to shy away from talking about topics like alcohol or drugs with your children. While you don’t necessarily need to tackle these issues with your kids in elementary school, you’ll want to discuss them before your kids head off to middle school. Choose private moments to have these conversations, and answer your kids’ questions honestly. Children who accurately understand the risks and consequences of these behaviors may not feel as much temptation to rebel against their parents.
Care for Their Physical Health
Smart decision-making also applies to the choices that your children make about their physical health. These habits don’t come automatically to people as they get older. As a parent, you need to be proactive in this area. To help your entire family adopt a healthier diet, Parents recommend making one balanced dinner meal for the whole household rather than adopting meals to each child’s tastes and turning healthy foods into fun snacks with homemade condiments and dips.
It’s also a great idea to schedule a few nights each week for the family to cook together. Not only will this give you time to chat, but kids are more likely to eat things that they help prepare. Plus, you are showing them a valuable life skill they’ll need throughout their lives.
It’s important to instill in your kids the value of exercise. You can take walks as a family or go hiking on the weekends to make routines out of exercise. If your neighborhood is walkable, use your family walks to pick up a few groceries or make friends around the neighborhood
Grant Increasing Independence
In order to learn the art of decision-making, your children need to practice making decisions! You can start with small choices, such as asking your child what activity they want to do on a weekend day or which homework assignment they want to do first. You can also give them an allowance so that they can get used to making financial decisions on their own.
Prepare Your Kids to be Awesome Adults
Sending your children off into the real world is always a bit scary. But when you’re confident that they know how to take care of themselves, you’ll feel proud rather than worried. With these tips, you’ll be able to balance parenting with achieving your own goals, pass on leadership skills to your children, and even pick apart tough topics to help your kids understand complex issues.
