The behaviors that we see our children and teens doing now are often the habits, hang-ups and routines that they will be doing many years down the road. As a counselor, I chat with adults all the time who tell me that they remember starting a certain pattern or patterns in their life way back when they were much younger. If we are honest with ourselves, I am sure we can look back to the past to see many of our personality quirks (some cute, some not) did emerge when we were running around the elementary playground or strolling through the halls in high school.
There are a few habits or ways of living life that I would like to highlight because I see the long term issues and honestly, much of the damage could have been avoided. I believe that good parenting involves recognizing the ways in which our children go through life that might hinder them later and working towards solutions while they are still young enough to be pointed in a new direction.
A few of the most negatively impacting habits include:
1) The creation of phobias:
There has been an increase of children who won’t wear this sort of clothing or must not have buttons on any items they come in contact with or will only eat from a list of 5 foods and on and on. As parents, we must be mindful to watch that our children’s world doesn’t become so confined to only the items they will tolerate or we are aiding in their development of phobias. Young children must not be allowed to dictate what they will wear or not wear. When a fuss is made about buttons, we as the parents calmly and lovingly explain that buttons are a part of life and there’s no getting away from them. We do not shift our wardrobe choices for our kids to not include any form of buttons. We push through and insist that our children be emotionally flexible. Now I do have to say that certain diagnosed mental health conditions make it very hard to simply push through but that is a very small percentage of the large group of children nowadays who have begun living very confined lives of only a few acceptable items in their world.
2) Good hygiene can’t not be ignored:
While our kids are young, we must instill in them the routine of caring for themselves on a regular basis. I know this sounds absurd, but you’d be shocked at how often I have come across young adults and middle aged folks that do not respect themselves enough to maintain good hygiene. Almost 100% of the time, the low self-esteem started in childhood when parents or a parent did not teach the youth to present their hair, teeth and body to the world in a way that reflected a healthy self worth.
3) Good manners can’t be ignored either:
Ever work with someone who didn’t know how to regulate themselves during a business meeting or heated discussion? I would take a wild guess that for the vast majority of these folks, speaking to others in a disrespectful manner was common place in the homes they grew up in. Ever come in contact with someone who almost always has a snappy tone, even when talking about something non-confrontational? That was probably how their family of origin spoke to one another and so it comes flying out of their mouth even before they know it.
4) Learning to hear NO when needed:
Ever wonder how narcissists are created? They either didn’t hear no enough growing up or they heard is so much that they learned to meet their own needs. There is a healthy balance somewhere in between never hearing it and hearing it too much. As parents, we will be doing our children a service if we allow them to experience disappointment and frustrations while they are young and the topics are about ice cream or bed times and not bigger adult issues down the road. Emotional flexibility is vitally important to all human beings and children who didn’t hear no enough growing up, become adults who expect everyone to cater to them.
The bottom line is that the environment we grew up in and then raise our own kids does have lasting implications. Let’s reflect on where there are areas we need to re-do from our own childhood and areas that as parents, we need to start addressing today so our kids have a better chance of having good habits that will last a lifetime.