Parents, teach your children well

by Jeff Hammond

Today is February 19, 2018 and our children’s stress levels are at an all-time high! They have to be wary going to events, to the store, and even in school. Today more than ever they need their parent’s guidance on who to trust, and how to become a responsible adult.

Here’s something I wanted to share with you and if you take away just one idea from this I will be happy! When I coached youth teams after a loss I would ask the young athletes “What did the other team do that we didn’t?” They then would answer with “scored more runs, made fewer errors, ran faster, etc.” Then at our next practice we would work on their suggestions; the result was they paid attention and improved because they were involved in the process.

As a parent wanting to raise your children to be happy you can ask yourself, “what has made my life harder over the years?” Here’s an example of some typical answers and what I would do:

My health has gotten worse
I could have been nicer to people
I could have gotten a better education
I could have taken more chances instead of giving into my fears

Okay, now let me show you what I would do next:

Providing my children with good health:

Learn how to provide them with nutritious meals and snacks
- We provide some healthy, easy recipes: https://www.mesbodysculpting.com/nutrition.html
Make fitness a part of their daily habits
- Find training techniques and activities you both enjoy: https://www.mesbodysculpting.com/fitness.html
Learn how to be positive in both good and bad times
- Realize that moods can be biologically driven and learn how to manage them: https://www.mesbodysculpting.com/top-3-ways-to-balance-hormones.html

Teach your child to be nice to aggressive people (bullies)

This will disarm their aggression, or in other words, you don’t fuel the flame
Being nice all the time takes discipline, but once you commit to being nice you feel better about yourself

Help your children get a good education:

Learn what makes your child want to learn and what their passions are
Research potential careers and classes that would suit their interests; then discuss this with them
- Look at resources outside of school (locally and online) that offer classes of interest and attend them together
Try getting more involved in their activities so you learn how they think in different situations and around different people. This will help you guide them towards the right people and courses in their academic journey

Teach them to conquer their fears and to take chances:

Learning to conquer their fears is one of the toughest things to accomplish, it takes courage, but once they overcome fear they are on their way reaching their potential.
Pay attention to why they do certain activities and avoid others then talk to them to see if something they are avoiding is from fear of failure.
- Explain to them that trying and failing is better than not trying at all
- Encourage them to give it a try and no matter how it turns out show them you’re proud of their effort

Know their coaches and teachers:

Meet their coaches! To me, knowing who’s setting an example on how to interact with other athletes and how to treat people is important. If the coach is a bully, teach them to understand you don’t want them to treat people badly, you want them to treat people with respect
Teachers have a hard job, but need to be held accountable for their work just like students. I believe knowing who’s teaching your children how to learn and how they treat students is crucial. If your child has a bad teacher they will not learn that subject, and, even worse, not be prepared for the next level in that subject. If this happens in a crucial subject think of switching classes or talk to their boss

The more YOU interact with your child, the more time YOU spend time getting to know them, the more confident and prepared they will be for their journey into adulthood.