Parents & Families

We believe parents and families are a child’s first character educator

Parents have a responsibility to foster and develop their children’s character strengths. This is especially true during the teen years when young people begin to exercise their voice and independence.

Loving black family spending time together at home

Featured Posts

What Parents Can Do When Their Children Are Stealing
What did I do wrong? Am I a bad parent? Is my child destined for a life of crime? Read Dr. Cohen’s blog to learn more about what parents can do when their child is stealing.

Why Do Kids Lie? – A Conversation with Dr. Kang Lee and Dr. Debra Cohen
Dr. Kang Lee is a developmental psychologist who studies moral development and the development of lying in children between 2 and 16 years of age. He is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Toronto.

What Parents Can Do When Their Children Are Lying
Honesty is a keepsake, a gift that parents give to their children. But do parents know how to raise children who care about being honest? When to intervene? What to say? What not to say? Read Dr. Debra Cohen’s blog to learn more about what parents can do when kids lie.

Champions For Character – Parents & Families

Character.org is proud to recognize Manners of the Heart (MOH) for inspiring and empowering parents and families to model and foster the core values that shape the hearts, minds, and choices of their children and teens.

Character Champions

Dr. Condoleezza Rice

Former Secretary of State, Dr. Condoleezza Rice, shared with us how her parents and mentors shaped her character.

Featured Book

The Resilience Workbook for Kids

Fun CBT Activities to Help You Bounce Back from Stress and Grow from Challenges

The Resilience Workbook for Kids* offers engaging activities grounded in evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and positive psychology to help your child recover from difficult experiences. Your child will learn how to “make friends with” their emotions, focus on the things in life that make them happy, and connect with what really matters to them. Finally, your child will discover how helping others can make them feel good about themselves, so they can move beyond feelings like sadness, fear, and anger. *affiliate link

Interested in learning more?

These organizations can help get you started:

Families of Character

Provides parents and families with the tools to instill character in their homes.

Generation Text Online

Helps schools develop an environment of trust between parents and staff.

Harvest Time Partners

Provides resources to support and encourage individuals and families, to reach their full potential.

The Center for Parent & Teen Communication

Subscribe to their weekly newsletter for practical tips to strengthen family connections.

Commitment

Parents need to commit to model and reinforce to their children the core values and character strengths that mean the most to them. They also need to be creative and offer meaningful experiences that illuminate how important these character strengths are to the family’s core values.

Conversations

We know “We need to talk” freaks kids out, but too often parents avoid having conversations about character, especially as children get older. While it may not be easy to talk sometimes, we know from the research that parents who avoid talking to their children about serious matters quickly lose trust and connection.

Celebration

Parents need to find ways for their children to be active participants in their own character growth. Optimal character development occurs when children begin to make self-motivated commitments to consistently practice a core value (e.g. “I want to be the kind of person who is always honest and shows up on time.”) Parents need to celebrate these moments to shape and define individual character.