HOW TO IMPACT VALUES IN TEENAGERS (part 2)

Hello there!         

It’s so good to have you on this Tuesday with Teenbaseetoh.

Just as I promised last week, today I will be sharing tips on how to instill values in Teenagers. But before we dive into that, did you take time to write down your core value?  Have you also asked yourself if you would be proud to have your child (ren) pick up those values?  If you haven’t, it’s not too late to do so.

Angela Duckworth, an American academic, psychologist and popular science author, in one of her articles, says that  ‘‘as young people grow up, they develop a sense of right and wrong and what is fair and just, from watching the world around them and the actions of the people they love and trust. This helps them to make wise choices and encourages them to contribute to making the world around them a better place”.

 

Be the Model  

This is one simple way of instilling values on teenagers. You simply act the role you want them to play. If you want your teens to be truthful, hardworking, then you should be seen displaying such traits. You shouldn’t be caught lying or lazing around while expecting others to get your chores done for you.

Don’t be the ‘‘do as I say not as I do” model. Children and Teenagers are best at imitating act then listening to commands or instruction.

 

Praise them

While growing up, there was this Aunt of mine I lived with, whenever I filled up all the water reservoir (drum) with water for our domestic use, she would praise me with words and that always made me happy, the next day I would go and an extra mile by filling all the buckets and bowls in the house with water. 

This is simple, whenever you catch your teenagers doing something good, praise them, it will simply make them happy and also make them do more.  Most of us are so bad that we find it difficult to commend our children whenever they do something good, but we are always so quick to reprimand them when they go wrong.

 

Engage them

Engage your teens in the good acts you do. When you go to your place of worship, go with them. When you are doing the chores at home, make them do some too. When you are having the community sanitation, let them join in and do something. This way, you are teaching them those values without having to spell it out to them. With these they would learn to take up those responsibilities even in your absence.

 

Take advantage of situations /ask them questions

Don’t always do the talking, give teens the opportunity to think and analyze situations by themselves. As teenagers, their ability to know what is right from what is wrong is more developed compared to when they were kids.  

Let’s say you go on an outing with them and you see another teenager yelling at an elderly person, take advantage of that situation to ask them their view about that scenario. Their reply will give you feedback of their sense of value and morality.

 

In order not to bore you, I will like to stop here today. I promise to share more tips on how to instill values in teenagers next week.

 Kindly share ways you feel values could be instilled in Teenagers in the comment section. Until next week Tuesday, Be good and stay safe.