One of the most important things for a parent to realize is they are smarter than their kids. Well ok, I know some dumb parents with smarter kids, but what I really mean is that you as a parent must be shrewder, subtler, wiser than their kid. Why? So you can teach and lead them without the kid consciously knowing it.
Kids hate being lectured to, right? So don’t lecture, be smarter than a lecture. Put a napkin in their lunch with an intriguing idea written on it, for example. Put interesting, thought-provoking art up on the walls. Read books that help you understand something and make sure the book is out for them to see. Go to a play instead of a movie one night and tell them (briefly) about it’s content. Clip a headline out of the newspaper and put it on the fridge. Not the whole article, just the headline. Comment below with your own examples of how you lead and influence your children, ok?
If you want them to go in a certain direction the only way it will happen in the long term is if there is interest and curiosity on their part. Stimulate that curiosity for them to find out things on their own and guess what? They will learn what you want them to learn.
AND if you do it right, in the end they will teach you more than you taught them!
Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, Publisher of The Napkin Dad Daily blog
Commentary by Anonymous
