11 Tips Raising Your Child

It is one of those essential facts of life that raising good children--children of character--demands time and attention. While having children may be “doing what comes naturally,” being a good parent is much more complicated. Here are eleven tips to help your children build sturdy character(s):

Steps

1. Put parenting first. This is hard to do in a world with so many competing demands. Good parents consciously plan and devote time to parenting. They make developing their children’s character their top priority.
2. Review how you spend the hours and days of your week. Think about the amount of time your children spend with you. Plan how you can weave your children into your social life and knit yourself into their lives.
3. Be a good example. Face it: human beings learn primarily through modeling. In fact, you can’t avoid being an example to your children, whether good or bad. Being a good example, then, is probably your most important job.
4. Develop an ear and an eye for what your children are absorbing. Children are like sponges. Much of what they take in has to do with moral values and character. Books, songs, TV, the Internet, and films are continually delivering messages—moral and immoral—to our children. As parents we must control the flow of ideas and images that are influencing our children.
5. Do not quarrel or make nuisances before children, do not encourage them to pick up argument, abuse other children. Train them to be polite, kind and tactful.
6. Read to your child. Helping to nurture a love for the written word will help your child to develop a love for reading later on.
7. Use the language of character. Children cannot develop a moral compass unless people around them use the clear, sharp language of right and wrong.
8. Punish with a loving heart. Today, punishment has a bad reputation. The results are guilt-ridden parents and self-indulgent, out-of-control children. Children need limits. They will ignore these limits on occasion. Reasonable punishment is one of the ways human beings have always learned. Children must understand what punishment is for and know that its source is parental love.
9. Learn to listen to your children. Influencing their lives is one of the greatest things you can do. It is easy to tune out our children, and a missed opportunity for meaningful guidance. Helping our children become good students also builds strong character.
10. Make a big deal out of the family meal. One of the most dangerous trends in America is the dying of the family meal. The dinner table is not only a place of sustenance and family business but also a place for the teaching and passing on of our values. Manners and rules are subtly absorbed over the table. Family mealtime should communicate and sustain ideals that children will draw on throughout their lives.
11. Do not reduce character education to words alone. We gain virtue through practice. Parents should help children by promoting moral action through self-discipline, good work habits, kind and considerate behavior to others, and community service. The bottom line in character development is behavior--their behavior.

Tips :

• Meet the parents of your child's friends. You may develop close friendships of your own in the process, but at least you will know if your child is safe at their house.
• Learn to shop. This is especially important for clothes, by finding the right size and style the child will be comfortable in, and shoes, so their feet are safe and protected.
• Read "how to" books with caution. Today's fad in child rearing may be tomorrow's headline article on the mistakes it precipitated.
• Having one child at a time helps a great deal. That doesn't mean wait 2 years after your first baby to have a second - it means waiting more than 6 years. Children are very demanding of your time, patience, and attention. Having 2 or more can be stressful for both you and the kids.

Bad Attitude? Depressed? Not Motivated? Learn the Skill of PR

Look everyone has bad days. Days were things don't go right. Or we feel sorry for ourselves. Or we are just not motivated to get off the couch. And nothing steals our dreams more than the TV and the couch.

When those moments, happen it is easy to get into what I call the Negative Spiral. If you are not careful the spiral can lead down the path to depression, self-inflicted pain, and even destruction. Tony Robbins taught me a principle called "Kill the monster when it is little". I do subscribe to the principle. Stopping the thought process, emotions, or negative actions early can certainly reduce pain and lose.

We all know it is not a good idea, to hold onto negative thoughts for long time. They can cause stress. Often feed limiting beliefs. They can even affect us physically. If you don't feel good, you often have more negative thoughts, and less energy. Thus begins the spiral down.

BUT how? Well PR (Positive Replacement) might be the answer. One of my mentors (Charles J Givens) taught me this powerful technique. Chuck is best known for his best-selling financial books: Wealth Without Risk, More Wealth Without Risk and Financial Self Defense. What most folks don't know is that he was a master trainer and preacher of personal development. I actually helped him with his book called SuperSelf. A great book of productivity, mind set and personal choice. He totally believed you can condition your mind, and attract the things you want in life. I do to. Conditioning the mind is the key. He (Chuck) and I practice the skill of P.R. Positive Replacement.

You see negative thoughts are a regular process for people. Many people are conditioned by life, friends, family or culture. We look for what is bad. Not sure how that happens. Maybe parents point out the negatives in our lives. News story about how bad the world is today. Or teachers tells us what we did wrong. But it happens. Or it just might be a life event. Illness. Financial Loss. Failure. Job Loss. Lost love. It happens. How we respond to these events is critical to our success.

At one point in my life I as 78k in debt. Did not have a job. Broke financially, emotionally and spiritually. Fortunately for me, the seeds of an idea buried years earlier surfaced. "For every adversity in life, there is the seed of equal opportunity" I think it was from Napolean Hill. Did not realize what that phrase meant until those dark days. When that idea fired off, I kind of half-hearted laughed... So what is good about being 78k in debt? A strange question, but even stranger answers. When I asked that question, I got some answers. They went something like:

• Well at least I am not 100k in debt. Actually made me feel better.
• Folks are worst off than me.
• I know how to build good credit.
• It will be a good story someday.
• I have my health. I am young. I can come back.
• Maybe the problem is not being in debt, but I cant pay the debt.
• How could I make a lot of money in a short period of time.
• Who has made a lot, with limited funds or no money.

I was back on the constructive mind set not the destructive spiral. Thank God. One gets me to success one gets me to the cellar of depression.

P.R. Positive Replacement basically means. You begin to ask the question. What is good about this event (that I am depressed or negative about). The earlier you interrupt the monster that better by the way. Kill negative thoughts when you first have them. Therefore, when an event happens or you have negative thoughts, you replace them with positive (even if they are a stretch). Let me give you an example. Let us say you wake up at home, family all around, you have been working hard, and just don't want to go to work today or even leave to go. Likely you have thoughts like: I am tired, will miss family, don't want to go, I am sad. Well as long as you let those thoughts flood into your mind, you will get a physical response, and more negative thoughts. So. STOP. Sit down with a piece of paper and write down all the good reasons for the event. Something like:

• Wow. Many people don't have a job, I am lucky.
• My job allows me to look after myself, family and friends.
• Once I am working, I really enjoy it.
• What great thing can I do today, to make work fun.
• They would miss me not work as well without me.
• Every day above ground is good day.
• You know what, with the money I make this week I am going to do something special for x

There is always good in every situation. A positive for every negative. Your job is to condition your mind to look for the positive all the time. To condition your mind, not even to think about the negative. The moment a negative comes in your head to dispell it or replace it with positive all the time. When beginning write down the event, negative thoughts. Then for every negative come up with 2 positive thoughts. Two positive replacement for every negative thought. If you do this exercise every time negative pops up eventually you will stop, and only come up with positive.

Of course having just a positive mind is not enough. Make sure you take positive action too!

Hi. My name is Jim Francis. I would like to create a financial miracle in your life. I have had the good fortune to spend time with 50 plus millionaires and 2 billionaires. Each of these MENTORS, gave 2 wonderful gifts. Number 1: Philosophy. Number 2: Strategy. Each are equally important. After studying with them for over 2 decades, I created the Millionaire Matrix. A vehicle for financial freedom. Specific strategies, in business, real estate, investing and wealth protection that can make a major difference in your life.

Take a step today, by enjoying one of my strategies, and then visit my web sites.

http://www.jimfrancisblog.com
http://www.creditspreadsystem.com

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