How do you give a strong value system to your children when they have everything?
Queen Rania, “the queen of Jordan”, when asked by Oprah Winfrey, “How do you give a strong value system to your children when they have everything?” Her response captured my attention.
She frankly mentioned that servants are not allowed to enter and tidy up her children’s rooms, yet it is forbidden to ask servants for a cup of water or juice. Her children must bring it themselves. Games or gifts are also prohibited, except on holidays and their birthdays. Even their success in school is for themselves, and their studies are their own businesses.
Honestly, the first thing I said after hearing her response was: “What a rich queen”! Yes! She is rich in her thoughts, mind, and correct education. Yes! She is a royal, yet strong, generous, and passionate advocate for children’s right to education — and a loving mother of four, who wears many hats in her daily life, and appears to balance them all with ease.
She is rich indeed just like my parents, or any other parents who made lots of sacrifices to get their children where they are today. Even my “queen” mother, used to tell me: “the values you are learning today as a child will determine the type of life you will live as an adult.” Because acquiring core values will lead us to succeed in raising out responsible, caring, and healthy children.
But, how do we do that? I mean, how do our kids acquire core values?
Let me tell you a bit about my child, although she is still too young to understand and take responsibility for her actions, I always think and plan on how I am going to train her on the art of respect, responsibility, kindness, and caring for others. And since she is still too young I thought that the only way to start doing this is to lead her by example and let her watch my actions and learn from them, so she can look at me and say: “if my mom can do it then I can do it too it is easy”. So my job is to make it easy for her to follow me.
Now think about it, if you could only choose three values for your kids to acquire, what would they be?
