Six Rules To Raise Your Children By

Written by Familytastic Staff on Thursday 22 October 2009

What are the core values that we should be raising our children to? Psychologist Kevin Leman, there are six simple rules that should be at the heart of each family.

The rules, which may seem a little harsh on first read, center mostly around respect for the parents as heads of the house, and some basic life lessons. Here are Leman's six rules:

1. You’re never going to be the center of everyone’s attention—not for long at least.  This means that children should not be the center of attention in their families.  Parents should be the center of attention.
2. Everyone must obey a higher authority.  Therefore, parents should expect children to obey, not hope that they will obey.
3. Everyone is expected to be a contributing member of society.  Too many children constantly take from their families without ever giving back.  Dr. Leman suggests parents ask themselves if their children are ever expected to perform routine chores around the home for which they are not paid.  The only acceptable answer is yes.
4. Everyone is responsible for his or her own behavior.  A child who does something bad ought to feel bad about it.  Too often parents feel bad when a child does something wrong.  Why should a child accept responsibility for his own behavior if someone else does it for him?
5. You can’t always get what you want and what you do get, you get by working and waiting.  Children should receive the things they need and a conservative amount of the things they want.  More children need to hear the word “No!”
6. You experience happiness, which is the elixir of success, in direct proportion to how sensitive to and considerate you are of others.  Self-centeredness and unhappiness go hand in hand.

After watching some the BBCs World's Strictest Parents programme, it would seem that some wayward families need to accept these core values to get their families on track.

What do you think of these rules - too strict or just what's needed to give families a singular set of values to live by?