Parenting Tips: Character Building - 5 Ways to Help Your Child Tell the Truth

Has your child ever told you a lie? How should we deal with that?  Did he eventually tell the truth? It is sad when our children tell a lie.  But it is not hopeless.  We can teach them to tell the truth.  

For me, I let them know how wrong it is to lie and the consequences of it. I do try to talk to them calmly but firmly. And when they do tell the truth afterward, I affirm their action. 


Below is a helpful parenting article by Jean Tracy about building the character of truthfulness into our children. This is reprinted here in my blog with permission from Jean Tracy. Hope you enjoy her parenting tips.
 

Is your child telling fibs? Would you like 5 parenting tips to help her tell the truth? Inside you'll find five suggestions you can use.

Quote on Truthfulness:
"What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things." - Margaret Meade

Parents, if you have a child who tells fibs, are you frustrated? Perhaps you've discussed the problem with her but she keeps "exaggerating." What can you do?

Let's say your child feels like he or she lives in the shadow of a successful older brother or sister. Sometimes s/he says, "I did that too, only better." Then, tells a story about his or her success. Everyone knows it isn't true.

In our last newsletter we briefly discussed the 4 reasons children misbehave - power, attention, revenge and helplessness. The one that sticks out for me in this case, is attention. If you have such a child, consider the following 5 suggestions.

5 Parenting Tips for Building a Truthful Character:
 
~ Use parent affirmations. Tell your child specifically what is special about her. Put love notes under her pillow and read them to her when it's bedtime. Then talk about the affirmation. If you do, she won't feel the need to exaggerate her own importance. She'll enjoy bedtime too. Of course, love notes can go inside lunch boxes, a pocket, or a handy kitchen basket. You'll need to do the same for your other children to avoid jealously. This will increase your bond with each child.
 
~ Create a truthfulness chart. At the top of the chart write, "My goal is to tell the truth." Give your child a sticker to put on the chart when he admits he fibbed, when he tells the truth, and when he praises his older brother or sister for their success. He'll love the stickers and the positive attention, especially if the chart is posted on the refrigerator for all to see.

~ Hold family meetings. If your family already knows your child tells fibs, ask the members to kindly tell her how her fibbing affects them. Let her talk about it too. Ask everyone to make a commitment to help her be more truthful. Maybe they'll give her a special look, say her name in kind but special way, or give her a special gesture. These can be reminders to help her tell the truth.

~ Ask your local librarian for children's storybooks that help children tell the truth. Share these books with your child. Discuss them too.

~ Boost your parenting skills. If you get angry when your child fibs and you say hurtful things, make some changes. Catch yourself. Make a commitment to become kind as well as firm.

Character Building Conclusion:

Stop worrying about your children's fibs. Choose these parenting tips to help your children do what they say and say what they do truthfully.

Building character in your kids is the best way to create a happy family. Your own behavior in handling problems, giving love and attention, and using character building stories will become bonding experiences. You'll also enjoy the feeling of being a good parent.

Jean Tracy, MSS, publishes a free Parenting Newsletter at www.KidsDiscuss.com.Subscribe and receive 80 fun activities to share with your kids.

Subscribe to Jean Tracy's blog at http://ParentingSkillsBlog.typepad.com and pick up a new tip with each post.

Contact the Author
Jean Tracy, MSS
Discipline Tips for Parents
More Details about parenting tips for building character here.

Taking Care of Kids Teeth

If we want our kids to have healthy teeth, we have to start early and start the right oral care habits. The other week, our whole family went to the dentist to have our regular check-up and teeth cleaning.  I also picked up a hand-out about basic oral care for kids.  I would like to share some of the important points to remember when it comes to taking care of our kids teeth.

How can I help keep my child's teeth cavity-free?  Their teeth should be brushed properly with a fluoride toothpaste at least twice a day (morning and before bed, after every meal is ideal) spending at least 2 minutes brushing.  Generally, kids under 8 will need help brushing, which means brushing for them the areas they might have missed on their own. It is also important to give them healthy snacks like bread and fruit and to stay away from too much sweets including softdrinks.

How should I brush my child's teeth?  It is helpful to stand behind your child and tilt his or head back then
1. Start by cleaning the chewing surfaces using short back-and-forth strokes.
2. For the outer tooth surfaces, place the toothbrush at a 45-degree angle toward the gumline.
3. Move the brush back and forth in short gentle strokes.
4. To clean the inner front teeth, hold the brush vertically and use gentle up-and-down strokes with the tip of the brush.
5. Make sure the gumline and back teeth are cleaned thoroughly. 

How can I teach my kid to brush her own teeth?  This is challenging because sometimes the child resists your brushing their teeth.  My 3 year old insists on brushing her own teeth, so she needs to learn how.  Start off with simple brushing technique, for example, a small circular brushing motion.

It is also important to keep the child enthusiastic about brushing their teeth.  I found this video with a nice teeth brushing song to help make tooth brushing time fun for our kids.

Stay at Home Business 101: I Got Paid To

This is the 4th post of  the series about Get Paid To programs.  Here, I will reveal those GPT programs I joined which have paid me.  Finally, I have proven to myself that these are indeed legit sites.  Sad to say there are many which have closed.  Good for me, I did not really invest any money though I did invest time in it.  Anyway, now, no more guess work.  I know the GPT programs that I will stick with.  These are:

1. Neobux - paid me 2 times: $2.02 and $3.20 instantly - payment proof 1 & 2
2. Palmbux -paid me $1.86 instantly - payment proof
3. Cash Harvest -paid me $2.01 in 3 days - payment proof
4. Jill's Clickcorner - paid me $1.12 as scheduled with mass pay - payment proof
5. Donkey Mails -paid me $1.08 as scheduled with mass pay - payment proof
6. 70cents -paid me $1.00 - this actually came as a surprise.  I didn't expect that they will pay in 12 hrs. from request - payment proof
7. PaidToClick.in - paid me $0.06 - this is a new site pays out automatically when you reach $0.02 - payment proof

You might say, the earnings are too little.  It is.  I would have earned a lot more if I promoted my referral links more also.  Anyway, this is one of the easiest ways to earn online.

Protecting our Children by Immunization

Today, Angel will get her immunization for measles which is scheduled for an infant 9-months old. Though she will cry because of the pain for a while, it is for best. Why is it important for babies and children to get their immunizations or vaccines?

Though newborn babies get antibodies from their mothers, their immunity to many diseases may last only a month to about a year and only to the diseases mom is immune to. When these antibodies are gone, the child becomes vulnerable to diseases.

Newborns, babies, and toddlers can all be exposed to diseases from parents and other adults, brothers and sisters, on a plane, at child care, or even at the grocery store. If they are not vaccinated, their bodies may not be strong enough to fight the disease.

Many of the diseases vaccines protect against like whooping cough, measles and polio can be very dangerous to babies. Before vaccines, many children have actually died from these diseases. Thank God for vaccines, we don't see these diseases as often.

Let us not delay to protect our baby and risk these diseases. Let us take them for immunization when he or she needs it. There are immunization schedules to be followed. For more information on this, you can download the Parents' Guide to Childhood Immunizations.

Parenting Tips: Protecting Our Children

As a mom, I am very concerned about the safety of my children. Daily news prove that anybody can be a target of predators especially our children. What can we do as parents to protect our children?

We must be committed and smart parents. Being a committed parent means knowing our children, listening to them, and being aware of what they're doing and who they're with. Being a smart parent means putting in place safety precautions to keep our children safe from predators.

Let me suggest 2 specific actions we must add to our to-do list to protect our children.

1. Know what type of people our child gets to be around with and that includes their friends, their friends' parents, the nanny and even the friendly plumber or cable man. Before we let them go out for a party or any type of gathering, it would be good if we could know about the people our children are socializing with.

Do you know we can conduct our own people search investigation to find out about anyone online free? Search engines are a powerful tool that scans all web pages for relevant information linked to a person's name. It would add an extra protection on our part if we would do some background check on people whom we don't really trust.

2. Each day billions of children log onto the internet to do research, email, chat, and play games. A large majority of content available on the internet is not suitable for our children like pornography and violence.

It is important to set up our computer's parameters so that they cannot access these websites. Protectyourchild.org gives a free step-by-step instruction to do that and it would only take 2 minutes to do so. Installing an antivirus, anti-spyware and anti-identity theft software on your computer is almost always a must.

Here's a helpful video about Teaching Your Kids to Be Safe Online. I think every parent should watch this.

There is simply one thing you cannot get enough of these days: safety.

Parenting Tips and Blog Hop: Three Things Every Parent Should Teach Their Kids - 9/28/2009

This is my entry to the MckLinky blog hop for this week's theme: Three Things Every Parent Should Teach Their Kids. This is not a list of the MOST IMPORTANT. This is just a part of what other parents, like me, think we should teach our kids. Please do visit the other blogs listed in this blog hop to check what other moms and dads think.

My 3 things every parent should teach their kids are 3Ps.
1. Patience in waiting. I've noticed that my children are so impatient. When they want something, they want it NOW. Well, they have to develop it slowly because it comes with maturity, and their childishness right now still gets in the way.

2. Perseverance. Another thing I've noticed is that when they have to do something like their school homework, for example, when they see it's hard, they want to give up easily. I need to teach them that in order to gain something it takes a lot of hard work. I guess this generation is getting more used to the "instant" solutions made available by technology.

3. Prayer. Praying means they have trust in God. This is most important because when they learn to trust God, even when things are long in waiting or the going gets tough, they will always lean on God for hope and strength.



Special thanks to Purell Hand Sanitizer for sponsoring this blog hop.