Children can seem exhausting, annoying, wonderful, loud and funny all at the same time. They are a lot of work especially in the beginning years but what we need to realize is that they are our future so what we do with them in the early to teen years is important because they will become the leaders while we behold the golden years. How we raise them now affects how our future is in our later years and in theirs. When you see how our current situation is with illiteracy in schools, and crime, it can seem daunting to us.

Still, we can change our future by giving our children a good foundation, morals and values they can think with. I was a teacher for ten years and I learned a lot from that experience. The main thing that I learned was that the more attention you put on something, the more the children responded to that. For example, if some students were behaving badly and I constantly put attention on them being bad, then that is what I would get from them. But if I switched gears and put attention on the things they were doing right, then I noticed that they would try harder to do the right thing. It is something I noticed time and again.

It is interesting to note that when you are in a situation where you see many different children together, you can see what kind of up-bring they have had. Here is what I have observed:

a) A calm child has had an environment where he or she has been allowed to express their thoughts and has been allowed to contribute to the family. This child has been listened to and they are made to feel that they are important and have a place in the family. A child will want to contribute in his or her own way and that could be drawing you a picture or bringing you a flower. To ignore this is a big mistake. As a child this may be the only way they can contribute to the family because they are so small.

b) If a child is acting up and behaving badly and you constantly harp on them about that then they are made to feel that this is the only way to get attention and therefore will continue to do so. If you switch gears and start praising them for what they do right and ignore them or take away their privileges when they are behaving badly then they start to learn that if they want something that they have to be good in order to be a part of this group and get what they want. Then you have started to direct them to strive to be good and contribute to society. It will ultimately help them to grow into a responsible individual and your life will be better for it.

There is a motivational print called Direction which I love that states There are two important things we can give our children, one is roots, the other is wings. I love this saying as it is so apt. Lets make sure our children have a good foundation for us, our children and their children.