10 Ways To Teach Your Kids About Healthy Relationships

We all want our children to be happy and have healthy, loving relationships. While you may feel lucky enough to have a wonderful loving adult relationship, most of us struggle in our relationships from time to time and we worry about how that will impact our children's ability to create healthy relationships in their own lives. What Is The True Reason Relationships Fail?

Whether you believe you are a good role model or not, there are some things you can do to help your children learn how to navigate their own relationships. The most powerful way to teach children how to create healthy relationships is through your relationships with them. Your relationship with your child is the most important teaching tool.

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Here are 10 things you can do to help your children learn the art of relationships:

1. Listen to them. Teach them how to listen by actively listening to them. Commit to understanding exactly what it is that your children want you to understand and test out that understanding to make sure you got it right. Active listening is about honoring the speaker's intentions, not your own.

2. Let them know no one is perfect. Watch your expectations and how you react to their "less than perfect" behaviors. Focus more on what your children do right and respond rather than react to what they do wrong.

3. Practice honesty. Be honest at all times. Teach them the power gained with honesty and integrity. Children know when we're telling them a lot of baloney. Use appropriate language for their age but make it honest and keep it real.

4. Apologize. When you make a mistake, own it, apologize, and let them know you'll do better next time. This is a powerful way to role model, taking full responsibility for your feelings and actions as well as acting as a great reminder for item number 2. When you respond in a non-defensive manner, it creates more connection, trust, respect, and effective problem-solving.

5. Forgive them. When your children make mistakes, remind yourself that no one is perfect and forgive. Use their mistakes as an opportunity for them to learn something new or remember something old. Teach them that forgiveness is really an act of self-love. It enables you to let go and release your energy for more constructive and empowering interactions. Forgiveness is a must in all relationships. Affection Is Key To Keeping Love Alive

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6. Take responsibility for your own feelings and reactions. Don't take responsibility for their feelings and reactions and never make them feel responsible for yours. Children need to learn how to manage their own feelings without blaming others. Children also need to know that they are responsible for their actions and its impact but can never take responsibility for healing another person's feelings. People can only do that for themselves.

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