The Origins of Children's Habits : หน้า 53/207

Where do Children’s Habits come from? After parents learn that good children must not be troublesome, ignorant, or careless towards others, the question now is, how do parents cultivate these traits in their children? Good qualities are implanted in children through their cultivation of good habits. Habits are familiarity, or each person’s individual behavior. They are developed with repetitive thoughts, speech, and actions. These repetitive activities, in turn, influence how good or bad we are. If parents allow their children to repeatedly think, speak and act unwholesomely, regardless of the scale, their children will become accustomed to wrongdoing, which cultivates bad habits. Chances are the children will grow into bad individuals. On the contrary, if parents teach their children to repeatedly engage in wholesome deeds, regardless of the scale, they will become accustomed to doing the right thing until it becomes a habit. And they will become good individuals in the future. People repeatedly think about, speak about, and act upon three different things: The Warm Hearted Family 104 Raising Children to Be Smart and Virtuous 1) The four requisites, which are clothing, food, shelter, and medicine. 2) Our assignments 3) Our daily routine. Habits develop from the way we utilize the four requisites. For example, three children who are fed using different routines will develop different habits: The first child: The mother feeds the child irregularly. The child cries whenever he is hungry and not fed on time. He becomes easily irritated and screams when he needs attention. He will develop a habit of violence and aggression to get what he wants. It is like the parents have a tiger baby to raise. The second child: The mother feeds the child all the time. Even when the child is not hungry, he is fed milk. He becomes obese but happy. However, he will develop a habit of sluggishness and indolence. In this case, the parents have a baby pig to raise. The third child: the mother feeds the child according to a schedule. The child develops a habit of punctuality and will grow up to be healthy, reasonable, happy, a good decision maker, and will be easy to care for. In this case, the parents have a sage to raise. Good and bad habits come from the child's repetition of thinking, speaking, and acting. In particular, it is how they