Character Development

I often wonder what decisions define us as a child. Whether its our friends, family, surrounding culture, instinct or hobbies. What does a parent do to build the foundations of a childs values. How can you encourage a humble, respectful lifestyle from an early age? Leading by example obviously helps, but I believe surrounding the child with a balance of intelligence & kindness is key. What do I mean by this? I think having other smart role models around is going to expose the child to asking questions. Whilst having emotional and kind leaders will encourage honesty and a lack of fear for stating your mind. This doesnt mean that you give them everything they ever want, moreso you have some both good and bad cops in their life to balance out obligations vs their dreams.

Tough love can harden someone through stress and turnoil, as they try their hardest to avoid this pain in the future. I think to nurture success, you want to develop your character into someone who likes difficult things. I often find myself being absolutely terrible at tasks naturally. Tripping over myself to no end and being picked last. However after a while of bashing the ole head into the wall, real skills are built and you can grow more meaningfully than being gifted. Essentially learning how to learn is very importnat.

What did mum and dad do to encourage this? Probably giving a wide variety of hobbies to us and not only pushing their own hobbies. Interestingly someone I met travelling mentioned that their parents decided to send them to classes for everything in which they were terrible at. So they learnt several languages, how to dance, and some other useful and unique skills. This meant that when they grew up, the difference between them and their parents was vast. I find that alot of freinds either follow their successful parents footprints or completely abandon it. Do you want this? Will your relationship be better with your child if you have the same hobbies and can do them together? Or will your relationship be better if they are able to grow away from you and hence always be unique in their space. Where does the least resentment in later life land. I really dont know...

One other important thing I would want to teach a child is that building engines is important. Instead of just doing one offs, try and build habits / things which will grow you to have something amazing over a longer period of time. For example, writing a diary entry is a simple thing anyone can do. Having years and years of diaries for later reference gives you something few people do. Its not something which can be fixed after its too late. Try and build habits which will lead to little regret in the future.