When children bring joy and peace to their parents, the parents feel proud. Parents who have taught and exemplified values like honesty, loyalty, respect, unselfishness, courage, self-reliance and self-discipline to their children watch them grow up as responsible members of the society.

Fathers who feel a commitment to inculcating these fundamental values in their children should model basic values. There is no single and better way to teach than by example. The values you value find their ways into your daily life. So, if you want to teach honesty, be honest. If you want your children to be giving and unselfish, find ways to show them that you accept those values.

Watch for teaching moments. If you are watching the evening news and see a story about someone who rushed into a burning building to save someone, you can talk about courage. Fathers should look for opportunities or teaching moments to teach their children good values.

Be consistent in discipline. Boundaries are important to children. As you apply family rules consistently and allow children to experience the consequences of their behaviour, they will learn that bad choices have repercussions at home and in the real world. If you are inconsistent or protect them from negative consequences, they will learn that they can talk their ways out of things and that the consequences of bad behaviour can be avoided if they are clever enough.

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Broaden their cultural horizons. Values are taught differently in different cultures, and as your child moves into the real world, she will begin to recognize those differences. Look for opportunities to introduce your child to new cultures and customs. Getting your kids to see things outside of their own culture will help them adopt the positive values they see in those experiences.

Help them learn to stay with hard things. If your child loves painting, writing or sports, they will face hard moments. Find ways to push that child to achieve. Even if that child feels they want to give up, encourage them to overcome such hard moments. In the end, the child would have learned that life is not easy and that good things take time to become reality.

Celebrate right behaviour. Some fathers are often quick to correct but slow to praise their children. So, in teaching values, fathers should not only correct any behaviour not in alignment with their values but must reward good behaviour that exemplifies fundamental values. So when your child is honest even when it is hard, tell them how proud you are of them. When he or she is courteous or respectful to you or others, let them know it. The old adage that “there is no substitute for a good compliment” is never truer than in child-raising.

Helping children see the value of your values is a role every father should play. Your efforts at shaping the people they become will be worth it. So take the time to teach and exemplify the values you have chosen for your life and by example, let your children know how to find happiness in life through the application of fundamental human values.