Its never too early to teach your kids what they need to know for the future. This world is really a trying place and you really need to make sure your kids are prepared for it. They need to learn responsibility, manners, cleanliness, finances, safety, and everything it takes to survive.
I know some people say to let kids be kids and let them express themselves with their rooms. I say yes let kids be kids by playing in the dirt, riding their bikes, and the occasional junk food. If expressing themselves is keeping their rooms dirty then that is saying they’re lazy. And if their room is dirty now you can best believe that when they are grown and you come over to visit, there house will be dirty. I’ve seen a couple of adults who are far from tidy, and they all say their moms never really taught them how to clean up.
If you don’t teach them to keep their rooms clean, brush their teeth, and bathe regularly they’ll turn into adults with very poor hygiene. I know you’ve been on a bus before, or had to stand in line at the grocery store, and you’ve had to breath as few breaths as you could possibly could to keep from breathing in the body odor of another person. And I know you’ve seen adults walking around with terrible teeth and you just wonder how in the world could they just walk around like that? That all stems from not being taught during childhood. I know if you do something enough times it just becomes habitual. You find yourself cleaning up behind yourself at a restaurant, when that’s what the waitress are suppose to do. But you’re use to your mom telling you to clean up behind yourself. A majority of the people that are clean, polite people, I’m willing to bet that their parents taught them that.
And kids don’t just need to know how to polite and clean they also need to know the value of a dollar, how to manage their money, and they really need to know how to live on a budget. Unless they’re born with a silver spoon in their mouth, and will have maids waiting on them, and financial advisers handling their money, they need to learn how to deal with money. I have friends who always need to borrow money to pay a bill or they run out of groceries, or something comes up. And a majority of these friends made triple the amount of money that I made when I first started out on my own. I came from a family of eleven and I walked, wore, and ate the word budget growing up. I hated wearing penny loafers as a kid, and I couldn’t scrape the heals of them against the sidewalk enough every day coming home from school. I was so happy when I’d finally worn a hole in them, and the Saturday morning when my dad said , give me those shoes. I thought he was going to use them to measure my new shoes with, but to my surprise he had took them and had new soles put on them. We shopped at yard sales, finding bargains. I didn’t really like it when I was a kid but I thank God that my parents taught me that there are more important things in life then wearing name brand shoes. And because I learnt that value as a kid I taught it to my kids. And I didn’t have to work just to keep my kids in name brand shoes and clothes. I had money to put aside for their future. Now some of my friends walk around with name brand from head toe, but have to come borrow money from me to eat and pay their bills.
I know of a couple programs that a friend and I have that teaches kids to budget and manage money. It prepares them for the future. You should look it up on the net, or go to your local library, I’m sure they have some books on how to teach your kids these things. And if you can’t find any thing the best teacher for your child is you. You can teach them what you learned from your parents or what you had to learn the hard way.
We teach our kids when they’re young not to talk to strangers, and we think that’s good enough. I think we should instill it in them when they are teenagers and even as adults. We have seen too many news broadcast about people who’ve been hurt or worse because they trust people a little too much. Like not opening your doors for strangers even when you’re grown. If something seems strange then trust their gut instincts. You’re first impressions is usually right. And even if you’re wrong its better safe than sorry.
We’re not always going to be around to clean up behind, fix things for or to help our kids. We need to make sure we prepare them for the future. Because one day they will go out in the real world and its ready for them even if they aren’t ready for it.. Let’s make sure they are prepared.
