How To Instill Good Morals in Your Children

Our children are the future of the world. Instilling moral values in them will help them do good and make the world a better place for everyone.

Anyone involved in raising a child knows that children are the future. This can put a lot of pressure on parents and guardians to raise children who will impact the world for the better. One way we can respond to that pressure and help our children is by instilling good morals in them. Knowing how to teach intangible values such as compassion, honesty, respect, and justice can feel impossible, especially when children are young. However, there are ways to help our children learn these values so they can make the world better now and in the future.

Demonstrate Good Morals

Parents play one of the most important roles in their children’s lives, from being their advocate when they need help to their disciplinarian when they misbehave. We also need to lead them by our example, demonstrating good morals in every part of our lives. For example, we can demonstrate compassion when we listen to a friend describe a tough time in their life and then do something to help them, such as cook them a meal. We can demonstrate respect when we apologize to our children when we wrong them. When our children see us do good, they will want to do good, too.

Label and Discuss Moral Values You See

Our children are sponges, which means they may already demonstrate their own understanding of morals before they have the words to describe them. Labeling moral values and discussing what they mean and how they affect us can help your children understand their role in making a better world. For instance, if your toddler child stops playing to help a friend look for their lost toy, you can tell them that you’re proud of them for displaying kindness. Explain that kindness means they considered their friend’s feelings and did something to help them feel better.

Read Moral Stories

Our children absorb lessons from all sources, including the media they take in. While many TV shows and movies help instill morals in the watcher, reading together provides quality time as a family and allows you to pause and discuss the morals you’re learning together. There are many moral stories in various religious books, such as the Bible, and you can encourage children’s Bible time to help instill those morals. Families that aren’t religious can read fictional moral stories such as A Bad Case of Stripes, which teaches the importance of individuality, and The Berenstain Bears and the Truth, which teaches the importance of honesty.

Instilling good morals in our children requires us to live life with an audience, always look for teachable moments, and craft those teachable moments with books. When we do this, we’re impacting our children for the better and, through them, creating a better future for the world.