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Parenting Principle #12- Values and Priorities
By Bob Kalle
Another way to define and understand ourselves and others is by the values and priorities they we live our lives by. When there is a decision to be made, .we resort to making that decision by the hierarchy of our values. What is more important to us? How do we prioritize our world when we make decisions?
For example, my list of values goes like this; faith, family, financial, friends and fun. Whenever there is a conflict in a choice, I make it with these priorities in mind. I choose to follow the higher priority since I deem that more important.
Most of the time, we don’t think this way. We just react. We just go through life day to day making what we think are the best decisions. Yet if we stop to think about how we make a decision when there is a choice, we will find that there are underlying values that guide us.
What is your value system? Whether or not you are aware of your priorities, your children will be able to see what they are. They will see the choices you make and how consistently you make them. Remember, they are trying to make sense of their world so they want to make sense of their parents. They want to predict their parent’s behavior so they can navigate through the day to day family environment. They will learn from us.
So what are you teaching them? If we are going to understand what we are teaching them, we have to know ourselves. Are you aware of the values you are instilling in your children?
