• Home
»
• Articles
»
• Parenting
»
• General Parenting
»
• 7 Ways to Teach Your Children to Make Wise Decisions

7 Ways to Teach Your Children to Make Wise Decisions

1. Let them make mistakes

As parents, our naturalinstinct is to shield our kids from all potential pitfalls. But carefullyletting your kids learn a hard lesson from their own mistakes and then talkingto them about it after the fact will give them great insight.

2. Expose them to the “real world”

Our shielding instinct is tohide the cold, ugly world from the eyes of our children. Yet, there is nobetter teacher than a helpful dose of reality. For instance, maybe you caughtyour child smoking. Instead of grounding him for two weeks and giving him averbal lashing, download pictures from the Internet of the lungs of those whosmoke. This is far more powerful in their mind than sitting in their room mad atyou because they can’t go out on Friday night. You still might ground them ofcourse, but WITH the real life example of why you must do so.

3. Learn your child’s interests andbe involved

Whether it is church youthgroups, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, football, music, art, cooking, or any varietyof social organizations, having your child get involved will teach him lifeskills that will grow his pool of wisdom. Whatever it may be, find out or HELPyour child find out his interests. Then provide real life examples of othersthat share their same likes and who are successful. This teaches that hard workand dedication is the key to success and those traits lend very well todecision making. It also exposes him to positive peer pressure (yes there issuch a thing!), and increases the likelihood that the decisions he makes willbe the correct ones. If a child has a lot to lose by acting foolish, he is muchless likely to do so.

4. Talk to your child

Open communication is vitalto parenting, but is quite often hard to achieve. The second a child senseslecture, you’ve lost his ear. It is said you should not be your child’s friend,but that is not entirely true. You ARE the parent, and they ARE the child, butunless you are their friend also, you are never going to get anything real outof them. If you can find common areas where you bond and illicit realdiscussion from your child, you will gain invaluable insight into how his mindoperates…how he thinks. This, in turn, gives you the ability to know whatdecision he is going to make before he even makes it. If it’s not going to bethe correct one, then you can intervene and guide in the proper direction.

5. Money, money, money

We can agree some of thehardest lessons learned in life are due to the misuse of cold, hard cash. Weall need it, all want it, and some of us actually save it. Those who do keepit, somewhere along the line, had a real fine example of how they don’t wish tolive. One of the greatest gifts you can give your child is to teach them how tohandle money properly. In years past, money has been plentiful to so many of usthat it became more and more difficult to show your child an appreciation forwhat he has. One benefit of this economically troubled time is that you canvisually show your children the value of your hard-earned cash. If you canteach your child to handle money in a responsible manner, most likely that willfollow through into the other parts of his life. An ancient proverb says, “Ofwhat use is money in the hand of a fool, since he has no desire to get wisdom?”

6. The friends we keep

If we are only as strong asour weakest link, then teaching your children how to choose friendships is avitally important task. As important as we like to think we are to our kids,their world revolves around their own social interactions and circles offriends. It is THEM they are listening to, and not us in many circumstances.One sure-fire way to know what direction your child is headed in is to get toknow his friends. “Show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.” A person should expose themselves to manydifferent types of personalities and cultures, and should be open-minded todifferent thoughts, but the people they keep close to should reflect greatvalues. Teach your child to understandthe value of a good friend, and also how to BE a good friend. And this will be a great asset in helpingyour kids make wise decisions.

7. Lead by example

If you yourself do not follow these principles, then howdo you expect your child to want to? “Do as I say, not as I do” is NOT a goodconversation starter with a child. If need be, use your own faults as anexample of how not to be and promise to do better. Humbling yourself in frontof your child and admitting your weakness will actually make him feel closer toyou. And where you do have strengths in decision-making skills, teach those tohim. The best lessons in life are caught, not taught, by a child’s parents.