No matter how hard you try to keep your kids from getting into trouble, sooner or later they’ll face the harsh realities of life. Many parents who draw rosy and optimistic pictures concerning the future of their children often get disappointed and give themselves up to despair, because they don’t have even the remotest idea on how to act in the situations when their kids can’t resist various temptations and start declining in a both spiritual and moral sense. Instead of losing heart and running to extremes, parents should remove rose-colored glasses and accept that children won’t develop and live according to their plans and expectations.
Today, children are surrounded by violence, theft, despondency, indifference, hatred, anger, lies, greediness and other forms of negativity. All these elements are an essential part of a modern society that will never fade away. These frailties exert significant negative influence on children’s psychological development if parents can’t orient their kids in the right direction. But how can we do it? If it’s impossible to protect and prevent your children from temptations and human vices, then you should teach and help them cope with these weaknesses.
Religious parents familiarize their kids with the main human frailties by reading the Bible on a regular basis. If reading the Bible isn’t your pair of shoes, then you should open your kids’ eyes to the most dangerous vices using different developmental fairy tales, parables and interesting explanations. Fairy tales and parables are effective during the pre-adolescent period of upbringing.
If the child has already come to a standstill and you don’t know how to save the situation or reeducate them, read on. You’ll find out how to point out your kids’ mistakes or wrong beliefs and remain in good terms with them.
1. Despondency
Despondency has become one of the most widespread problems among adults and children. In my opinion, this problem is getting worse due to the people’s habits of over-thinking and asking themselves too many confusing questions. As a result, they plunge into the ocean of despair and refuse to struggle for the better future.
Psychologists say that children’s bad mood is always associated with a certain situation. As soon as the problem fades away, their mood automatically normalizes. If they’ve long periods of moodiness, irritability and excessive boredom, it means the child is experiencing a serious psychological disorder.
Teenagers swing constantly from pessimism to optimism and often fall into short-term depression. That’s normal, because their young and naive hearts are full of hormones, dreams, desires, passions and emotions often suppressed by this cruel and complicated world.
If you’re a caring parent, give a helping hand to your kid. Don’t criticize and blame them, because only one careless word can significantly intensify the problem. Instead, initiate a friendly talk to cheer them up and show that you’re not indifferent to their problems. It will give you an opportunity to understand the origin and depth of their depression and despondency.
More: 7 Signs Your Children Are Truly Happy
2. Idolizing celebrities
Almost all children are prone to idolatry during the adolescent period. Boys and girls alike turn famous celebrities, especially pop or rock stars into the objects of admiration, fall in love with them and dedicate all their free time to learning their biography and listening to their songs.
Why do children tend to make a graven image for themselves? Researches show that children who idolize celebrities in most cases live a sorrowful life. They find it better and safer to build castles in the air and live in a fantasy world, because their reality isn’t as interesting as they would like.
Although a reasonable idolization is a useful technique that helps adolescents achieve independence, express themselves and develop their identity, parents should keep their eyes peeled for the process of idolization not to go too far or drive the kids to a standstill.
In order to bring your children back to reality and prove that idolization of celebrities is a waste of time, treat this situation with sympathetic understanding, because your criticism or attempt to discredit the cult figure in the eyes of your kid will only offend and alienate them. As a parent you should do your best to become an authoritative role model for your child.
3. Theft
Not all children are angels sent from Heaven. Oftentimes, kids are caught stealing something. In most cases, theft isn’t their hobby or lifestyle, but a psychological response to a lack of parental love and care. Children pilfer money and other small things from their parents to show them that their feelings have been hurt.
If you’ve convicted your kid of stealing precious things, don’t sound the alarm and tell them that they’ll go to jail. As a parent, you should tell them that theft is the road to nowhere and let them know that they’ve trampled on your feelings. Without a doubt, they’ll feel guilty for what they did and realize that you love them regardless of everything.
Educational talks can move the issue off dead center, but they don’t always solve the problem. Parents should admit their mistakes as well and devote enough attention and time to their children on a daily basis.
4. Lust
According to sociological statistics, children worldwide are reaching puberty at earlier ages and it’s not normal. During the teen years, kids aren’t psychologically ready for sexual relationships. Promiscuous sexual relationships can lead to unwanted pregnancies, health problems and even trigger a serious psychological trauma. Unfortunately, children usually don’t realize the truth until they make a mistake.
Modern teenagers change sexual partners as often as they change their underwear. They become promiscuous, because they’ve free access to the Internet, television and other sources of sexual propaganda. If you don’t want your children to misstep, you should do your best to enhance their self-esteem.
From early age, show respect to your kid’s choice and tell compliments, but try not to do it in an extremely expressive way. It will help you gain confidence of your children and win their respect. Try to pick your words and never tell your daughter that she behaves like a lady of easy virtue. Don’t use such negative comparisons for pedagogical purposes, because they can wound to the quick.
More: 7 Ways to Protect Your Child from Internet Hazards
5. Alcohol
Alcohol is a legalized mass murderer that spoils the quality of adults’ and children’s lives. This trouble often happens due to human inability to counter powerful alcohol propaganda and drink in moderation.
Younger generation wholeheartedly but mistakenly believes that alcohol consumption is a sign of maturity and sternness. They start drinking low alcohol drinks on a regular basis to boost mood and relieve stress. If you want to prevent your child from alcohol problems, start from yourself.
The statistics prove that the kids of non drinking parents are less likely to become alcoholics. As a role model you should set a good example and teach your kids to make a great time and entertain themselves without alcohol and other mind-altering things.
6. Envy
Nowadays envy has become an absolutely normal psychological phenomenon, peculiar to both adults and children. Envy is an essential part of human development that stimulates the child to move on. Unfortunately, besides stimulation and inspiration, excessive and uncontrolled envy can discourage and turn children into helpless and hopeless losers. If you don’t want this human frailty to poison the life of your child, try to change your kid’s attitude towards it.
It’s not necessary to be a professional psychologist to set your kid on the right track. Just initiate a frank talk and explain them that it’s more important to be an individual and differ from others. This will hopefully boost their ego, teach them to take this negative feeling under control and take advantage of it.
7. Anger
During the adolescent and teen periods, children are very sensible and vulnerable to the outer world. They often become aggressive thanks to the teachers who sometimes humble and project their bad moods onto the students. As a result, children, at first suppress the feeling of anger, but then spew venom at somebody else.
Moreover, modern cartoons, movies and especially computer games exert unbelievably negative influence on children’s psyche and increase the levels of child aggression. If you’ve noticed that your kid behaves in an aggressive way, don’t keep silent and suppress your emotions, but scream with pain and take all necessary measures to stop your little aggressor.
Your child should understand that aggression is punishable and indecent. If you’ve found out that the child’s aggression is the result of wrong pedagogical methods, you should talk to teachers or change the school without any hesitations.
More: 8 Ways to Stop a Child’s Temper Tantrum in 5-10 Seconds (or less)
Your children are the flowers of your life and you should do everything possible and impossible to make their life easier and better than yours. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to always cover your kids with your wings. The only thing you can do is teach them to live, submit and cope with various issues or frailties independently.
Do you believe that the parent’s helping hand can handle the situation? Do you know any other effective ways to teach kids resist temptations and cope with the main human vices? We’d like to know your point of view!
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