Yes! Charity all begins at home. The type of behavior that your family exhibits to other people around reflects what kind of a parent you are. Everything your children do outside the home be it at school or anywhere else still comes back to you. It can either spoil the family name or praise it.

There is need to bring up caring, responsible kids, but what is the best way to do it?

The strongest influences upon a child are the earliest. These influences may either be positive or negative. Meaning we have to find a way of ensuring that the positive influences must be the most common or prevail.

This will only work when children pay attention and take to heart the messages or lessons trying to be told or taught.

In order to teach our children what is right and wrong, we need to be sure what we ourselves believe.

We know you don’t hurt other people, steal from them and that you should treat them with respect.

Does smacking and spanking help?

Some say smacking can help teach children how to behave well while others view this as an assault. I say it all depends.

Children who are poorly supervised or who face harsh and erratic discipline are also more likely to become delinquent in society.

Does it really matter if it’s a single parent or two married parents?

Some people believe that children can only be brought up properly in a family consisting of two married parents, while others insist that they can be brought up just the same in single parent families or maybe even better. It just requires you to spend more time with your children.

What about working mothers?

Working mothers have often been blamed for children running out of control. You can work and be a good mum at the same time. You just have to plan properly to make things work.

Others believe women or mothers who stay at home can easily become depressed, with their unhappiness making her react badly to her children.

Parents are blamed instead of being trained. Instead of being accused, parents need to feel supported so that they can give a loving and stable home to their children. Children learn most from the example their parents and other people closest to them set.

You can never teach a child to be kind, obedient and caring by being violent and unjust towards children or bringing them up in a violent kind of an atmosphere.

Children who witness violence especially in the home, are traumatized by it, with boys more likely become violent themselves and girls being more likely to seek out violent relationships.

Many parents feel totally unprepared for the challenge of raising children and have only limited coping abilities when things don’t go according to plan.

Parenting training courses which offer support seem to be gaining in popularity. Parents not only get to share ideas on how to tackle problems but they also come to realise that they are not the only ones whose child can be badly behaved or trying. Being a parent is the most important job we ever do and yet were expected to do it without any training.

The fact is that children learn far more from the way their parents behave and treat them, than they will ever do from reciting the 10 commandments or being punished in school.

Thank you for reading. I hope you have learnt something new about parenting. God bless you and your family.

How to encourage caring and responsible behavior from our children and young people;

- Have a stable marriage and spend more time together as a family. This will make children happier.

- Have a good set of rules and limits in the home.

- Give children chores and responsibilities at an early age. Especially if they are girl children you must teach them to be helpful.

- Start up a parenting training course if you think that is necessary.

- Ensure you make time for yourself as a mum to rest.