what will you teach your kid?

If you had a kid, what values and skills do you think are very important for serving in real life?

In a world that that people have to live with competition, racial intolerance, ethnocentrism, religious hatred and class consciousness, what are best steps to take to guide your ward through these maze of difficulties?


Opinions are needed from all around the world folks. And thank you for stopping by.

 

well i do have 2 kids are i am guiding them in the ways of tolerance, resilience, understanding, acceptance, charity, and love. i find that practicing what you preach is the key in teaching them. how can they take one path whilst the person they look up to takes another....???

 

If I had kids - that is exactly what I would like to teach. I vuv u!!!!!

 

Well that pretty much nailed it. :smt038

 

The question is far to vague and open ended. Different cultures, different steps, different ideas of what is right or wrong....

Judgement
Justice
Dependability
Integrity
Decisiveness
Tact
Initiative
Endurance
Bearing
Unselfishness
Courage
Knowledge
Loyalty
Enthusiasm

...and how to play.

.....this is what I teach my children.

 

? this, plus I pray I can teach them to love the water & mother earth as much as I do.

I :smt049 you Miss Tarshi.

 

Tarshi is spot on. I won't even quote her.

 

lippy is going to take this in a different direction...my son is now a teenager...he needs the following skills to take him into adulthood

street smarts
how to navigate the city with public transportation
study habits - time management
how to do his own laundry
earning and managing his money
making smart choices
learning from mistakes
preparing him to be the minority in this country
how to grocery shop
how to cook his own food

at this point in his life he already has the following qualities
empathy for others
love and caring for animals
respect of his elders - grandpa's favorite
love of family and friends
acceptance of all people regardless of race, religion or economic status

he is an old soul and wise beyond his years

 

teach her to manage her money

 

I will teach him first and foremost to respect himself and others. I will teach him the importance of lifelong learning and education in that he must be a warrior and scholar to live this life. He must have a black belt in one hand and a PH. D in the other. . I will teach him that it is better to be humble and loved than be a idiot and hated.

 

I tend to joke a lot due to my sheer intelligence, but to get a lil serious here: the main thing you can teach lil seeds is to read. Not only read, plain texts because reading has become horse sense these days, but teach these young seeds to "read between the lines". There is so much knowledge out there and so much pollution in the air waves poisoning not only communities but individual mentalities. Young black males in particular are made to disrespect his brother and especially his sister based on what he sees on tv. The fact is, unless we, young blacks start respecting our "brothas" we are nothing more than "fucked" whether successful or not.

The fact of the matter is this: If we, young black men want to access the kind of general respect similar to cats from other races and possess prospective future, we have to cease the act of self degrading which tends to affect a larger scope as "community degrading" "black hatism" etc. Remember that nobody in this world cares about you other than your family. I recently read a thread where a member mentioned his younger sibling defiling his family name in acts of self degradations, and many in here told said poster to mind his own business. Well i dont believe in that at all, because while nobody in this world gives two shits about you, your family have your back regardless. So teach that kid to value the importance of family trees. This importance should also go beyond mere bloodlines and into racial family trees. The only people in this world who will give three shits about you when all shit hits the fan is your family. The ONLY people that can ever comprehend your true beauty, power and importance is your family, and especially your mothers. I see so many young black males worshipping any woman other than a black woman and i find great fault in that, because no other woman deserves any sort of worship treatment other than your queen, your black females. These women are our mothers, sisters and all. They know the struggles we face, they know the racist hatred we endure. A lot of us young black males are raised by single black females. They need us and want nothing but the best from us. I think thats the main reason many black males go for whites or asian women, because they fear being put down by black women. I mean, when they (bw) put us down it feels ten times worse than some white woman rejecting us; the venom is simply more potent. I could never expect white women to treat me like the king that i am, because shes too naive to understand my importance, and sometimes i try hard to care what she thinks. Remember, when all is said and done and when youve reached the mountain top (or rock bottom), it will be the black woman who will stand beside her man, not the white woman, i just dont see that happening?

so:::::::::
Teach these young kids actions that not only empower them enough to claim the true dignity of their being but also to maintain that integrity.
Teach them to listen attentively without blinking.
To never take a slap to the other cheek and stand up for their convictions.
Stop listening to music that pollutes their minds and when they do, only do so for educational purposes..
Dont watch television shows that portrays you as nothing more than a big booty lusting, bling bling whoreshipping worshiping "gangsta".

It shouldnt take apocalyptic destruction of all blacks for us to come together and see the bigger picture. I know many of us have gone astray and still do, but just teach these lil kids these golden rules (or as i call it: the blackened rules" and a movement will take place.

 

You are right, Tarshi, one has to be a role model. It is hard to preach about an ideal if they do not see that you are trying very hard to live with those ideals.

 

Yes, you are right. I was hoping that people would expand and help me take in any direction that suits there fancy, so it can well be a conversation.

On some of the issues, you raised, some of them, I think involve concepts that are taught in professional life, for example, a lawyer, or a cop may emphasize the idea of justice. And a businessman, or soldier would emphasize the need for decisiveness. I say they are concepts because they involve some understanding that might require work that could most times be outside the province of parents.

But I like the idea of knowledge. The love of books, the discussion of issues around the dinner table that is expansive on many aspects of life. I think that is doable.

 

.. great topic, but almost overwhelming to think about.

Firstly, I think it is what you show your child that teaches them the most. Beyond that, they interpret what they see with age in their own way.

Of course,
- Compassion
- Open mindedness
- The value of hard work.
- Diversity of the world.

My man is already on notice that reading to our child as much as possible is critical. They are some of my best memories. It's great time for bonding, helps the child feel secure and of course teaches them the power of language. It's really my only 'rule'.

Aside, I'm not going to be using any stupid parenting books, super baby gurus, talk shows, tv shows or any of that other shit to raise my child. People raised children just fine forever without any of that crap. Some parents seem way too paranoid if you ask me.

Feed them well, use the right amount of discipline, teach them the value of learning, try to avoid yelling and arguing in front of them and see what happens.

Specific skills, I know if its a boy then of course my man will be teaching him djembe.. that's pretty much non-negotiable, and of course the dances etc. Please, no criticism on the 'if it's a boy' part of that...that's something I don't have any right to mess with!

 

Yes, because that's the power to finding everything else out and shaping their own way.

We agree on that before I even read your post.

 

I like the direction you have taken it. Like I mentioned in my response to YMRA, it is mostly about using the thoughts of others to move the topic. In a sense, I kind of understand how each person's experience, culture and locality select on what seems important as skills and values in life.

On street smarts, how exactly does one teach it? How do you consciously program kids to have that bit of knowledge.

I like the practical skills to have like the idea of self-reliance : understanding the geography of the city and how to locate your place in it. The time management, earning and money management, and the others.

But with a changing world, and changing economic fortunes, and this whole idea that pension funds are not reliable with the likely spike in demand by the baby boomers, how does one create a love for continuous learning that might cut across professions and might prepare kids for changing jobs over a life time. I know this could be the work of government, yet I am skeptical about public education in this sense.

In the sense that government react not too quickly to immediate concerns, unless there is a damage on tax base, or they see other countries outdoing them in many areas of the economy. School curriculum reflects the priorities of the day, and hardly prepare one for the scope of modern life.

I am not suggesting home schooling , but I am thinking is there a way of exposing kids to reasoning in many frames, as in thinking in many contexts through guided reading right of the bat when you have some measure of influence to encourage it. For example, making them take music, language, art, and martial art lessons.

 

I think reading is important, and like you said reading between the lines. But how can one enable a kid access into closer reading without exposure to other cultures?

Exposure to other culture, I always tend to assume, facilitates closer reading of even one's culture because for once , you can compare and contrast, and see threads of humanity in other people if you pursue your inquiry further for adults.But when kids have access early, it facilitates understanding easily. Imagine two people from different backgrounds with different life experiences starting a family, although it can be tough getting along for those that are not cut out for it, yet one can say right there in the home, the kids of such union would grow up to understand life from the perspectives of their upbringing.

On the issue of brothas, I think self respect is important. Understanding that others deserve what you deserve is a start. We need to have a social conscience and a sense of community.

 

The ideas you raised are important in a world with a future that is hard to predict. I guess knowing we know so little is the beginning of humility.

 

You hate those books on raising geniuses, eh? Why don't you want to raise a genius, I mean little Albert Einstein from Leksola genes?

On a more serious note, I would not be too dismissive right of the bat, I would rather consider it as they bring ideas to the table, and I am left to make my choices with some measure of scrutiny, and not take whatever they are marketing as gospel.

You are right. It makes a lot of sense to socialize kids into learning early by reading when they are young. I think from that early experience reading becomes a culture, or a second nature.

 

Tarshi summed it up very nicely! I would also add to have confidence in yourself as there will be others that will often question and criticize your decisions, even your "friends"