How to Promote Positive Changes in Your Children

If you want to see positive changes in your children, lead by example and give them the attitudes and values they need.
How to Promote Positive Changes in Your Children

Last update: 11 August, 2023

As the popular saying goes, education begins in the home. And behind every child with great values and manners is a good mother or father who raised them with love and dedication. Therefore, lead by example to correct your children’s behavior by promoting positive changes. There’s nothing more powerful in childhood than those teachings that are provided consciously or unconsciously in day-to-day life.

Parents are the main role models for our children and, therefore, it’s essential to provide them with a good example that they can replicate. In a home where disrespect, dishonesty, and violence abound, we can’t expect to raise a responsible, sincere, and emotionally intelligent future adult.

You might be interested in: How to Teach Children by Example

If you want to be a guide for your little ones, lead by example

Becoming a mother or father is a pleasant and life-changing experience. And it’s not only a decision that comes with great joys and moments of happiness but also carries a great responsibility toward a little creature who didn’t ask to come into the world and deserves all the care you have to offer.

A mother and daughter reading books.
The example that’s provided from home is the education that children need to move forward.

And although no new parent is given an instruction manual for their role and many times parenting is guided by intuition and experience, they’re obliged to give the best of themselves. Realizing that they’re no longer alone in the world and now at their side, walks a little person who needs their commitment and responsibility.

Recognizing that it’s in their hands to foster the emotional intelligence and physical health of their children, it’s important for all parents to educate themselves with timely information on parenting methods. For example, the valuable lessons of positive parenting and attachment theory; keeping in mind that by their example they bring their words to life.

Lead by example and be consistent in your actions to promote positive changes

During their infancy, children aren’t able to discern very well between right and wrong. Therefore, their parents play a fundamental role not only by correcting bad behaviors and establishing limits for coexistence, but also through their actions. Because of this, parents must be consistent between what they tell their children and what they do in their daily lives.

Here are three tips to promote positive changes in children through your example.

1. Be consistent with your demands

Parents must show their children through example that there are some behaviors that are unacceptable. For example, you can’t tell your child not to swear when there’s an abundance of it going on in your home. Or ask them to be more empathetic and respectful when that hasn’t been the example that their parents have given them.

A black father teaching his young son to make the bed.
If you want your little ones to be more involved in housework, try to be more involved yourself so you can teach them.

So, if you want to keep your moral authority and not confuse your little ones with bad actions, try to be consistent with what you demand from them. Educating a child can be a great opportunity for personal growth and leaving behind harmful patterns. So, if you want to raise a good person, try to be one yourself.

2. Speak less and do more

Words are lost in the wind when there are no concrete actions to validate them. And it’s more effective to provide a good example that children can imitate than a thousand reflections on behavior. Consequently, put aside the lectures and let your actions be the ones that give your children great lessons.

3. Learn to accept mistakes

Being humble and knowing how to recognize mistakes is one of the greatest lessons we can teach our children. So, if as a parent, you exceeded a limit of coexistence for any reason, accept your mistake and ask for forgiveness.

Don’t ignore the situation or overlook the feelings of others, as this will be an attitude that your child can replicate in the future.

To promote positive changes in your children, lead by example

It’s not consistent to resort to complex methods of education when the wrong lessons are transmitted to children on a daily basis. Therefore, lead by example if you want to positively correct your children’s misbehaviors.

Remember that, during their early years, children learn a lot by imitating their attachment figures. So, try to be that guide that your little ones need to improve as a person.


All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.


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This text is provided for informational purposes only and does not replace consultation with a professional. If in doubt, consult your specialist.