Life Lessons

I'm a Mama first and foremost (although it doesn't feel that way these days because my kiddos are still in Utah for a little while and I miss them terribly.) I long for my days to be filled with carpooling, smiles, and complaints over dinner. Today on dailymail.com they discussed a survey about the 10 Most Important Life Lessons we can teach our kids. Here's what they found. Teach your kids too.

1. To always say Please and Thank You (I've always been a big manners Mama so this has been an easy one for me, but it pays off. People notice when my kids are polite.)

2. Respect their Elders

3. Use Good Table Manners (note to self: we need to work on this desperately! They can't even sit still in their chairs for 30 seconds and they are 7 and 9! It's about time.)

4. Always tell the Truth (this is sticky. I prefer teach them to tell the truth unless it will really offend someone, in those cases, keep it to yourself!)

5. Don't talk to Strangers (my sisters family has a secret code word that a person has to have before her kids will go with them.)

6. Brush your Teeth Twice a Day (My daughter went to her first day of school with stinky breath, but usually this is a biggie for me... hardly anything is grosser!)

7. Treat others with Kindness

8. Be Confident (every time I want to pick apart my appearance in front of my daughter I try to stop myself for this very reason. I think a large part of confidence is modeled by you.)

9. Be Helpful

10. Admit when you are Wrong (Rick had a talk with me long ago about how no one likes excuses and no one likes the blame game. It's stuck with me and it's so true.)

As they say, there is no such thing as a perfect parent, and actually I think that's a good thing, but I'm keeping this list with me and hopefully they'll walk away with at least half of these values. If they do, I think I did a-okay!