Raising Children: Cultivating Good Habits : หน้า 49/216

Part Two: Raising Children cultivate these traits in my children? Answer: Through good habits. It's that simple! As we discussed earlier, habits are developed with repetitive thoughts, speech, and actions. These repetitive activities, in turn, influence our learned behavior and continued development throughout our whole life. If we allow our children to repeatedly think, speak, and act unwholesomely, regardless of the scale, then they will become accustomed to behaving selfishly and uncontrollably while developing the bad habit of cultivating bad habits! Chances are that these children will age into individuals who are disinterested in being virtuous, successful and responsible adults. However, if we teach our children to repeatedly engage in wholesome thought, speech and activities, then they will become accustomed to doing the right thing until it becomes a habit. Thus, they will learn how to become successful individuals in the future. Generally, habits develop from the way we utilize the four requisites: clothing, food, shelter and medicine. Here are three examples to illustrate this point: • When we feed our children irregularly, they cry whenever they are hungry and not fed on time. They become easily irritated and scream when they need attention, developing a habit of using violence and aggression to get what they want. It is like we will be raising baby tigers! • When we feed our children all the time, even when they are not hungry, they will become obese and dependent on the way food makes them feel. They Family Day By Day 47 Raising Children