WOW #008 – Teaching the way
Some Words of Wisdom I’d like share this week:
‘Teach your children right from wrong, and when they are grown they will still do right.’
Proverbs 22:6
In other words:
‘Bring up a child by teaching him the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not turn away from it.’
…
A friend of mine’s been working in China for the past 3 years or so, and when we met up last month we talked about how children generally are behaving in China.
He said that so far the Chinese kids he’s noticed are very spoiled. They’re generally allowed to do ‘anything ‘ that they wish. Even disrespectful or negative behaviours are tolerated by the adults.
Like, when a kid is impolite towards an adult (eg. snatching food from a stranger’s plate without saying anything), the kid’s behaviour would normally be excused and the adults will say something like, ‘Ah, they’re just kids. They don’t understand what’s proper and what’s not as yet. When they grow up, they’ll learn.’
To me, that’s a big worry. And I’m not sure if this parenting approach is due to China’s only-one-child-is-allowed-per-family policy.
*sigh*
I’m frankly concerned about how the future generation will be like years from today, especially if that’s how they’re being brought up there. I sure hope not all the kids are like that.
One thing I can say, kids are much smarter than we think. They can understand what we teach them though they’re still very young. They observe, absorb, copy and learn from their surroundings real fast.
And, I strongly believe that it is our calling and responsibility as parents to teach our kids what is right, while we still can.
