How to teach how to value what you have

Can a child from 3 to 10 years old learn to value what you have or is it still very small? Throughout childhood it is very beneficial for parents to teach children to be careful with material things, so that as they grow they can move to a higher level that will lead them to be happy with what they have and not with what they want.

How to learn to be careful

Children must learn that things have a value and it is important to respect them and take care of them to maintain them, because of the effort that may be involved in getting them. When a child is educated in an environment in which he is allowed everything he asks for, he has everything he demands and when something is lost or spoiled he is easily replaced, he does not learn the value of things or what it means to achieve them .


Regardless of the fact that parents may find it easier or easier, due to the economic resources they possess, acquire or have certain things, it is important to educate them so that they are careful and value them. Behind this learning will also be being careful, not only with things but with oneself and with other people. From very young, parents should demand an effort to get things done well, moving this to their use.

Teach to value what you have

Feeling the value of things is an achievement that must be learned little by little, with patience. In climbing to achieve this, these are some steps that parents can take to instill in children the value of things and teach them to value what they have.


1. Be ordered. This means assigning a site for each thing, being able to leave it in that assigned place and keeping things in good condition so that they do not spoil and have a longer duration. For example, not only should they learn to leave the books on the bookshelf but that they are in a good position to avoid bending or breaking. This is being ordered.

2. Things are hard to get and have a value. For them to learn this concept, it must cost them to achieve them. If they experience it in the first person it will be easier for them to assimilate it. We can carry out this apprenticeship if we avoid giving them immediately everything they ask for. They must understand that they can not have everything they want, for that they will have to know how to choose and establish a hierarchy and priorities in their requests.

3. Things require effort to achieve them. It is good that they earn what they have chosen with good actions or helping us in housework or even work, depending on age. Once they have achieved what they have chosen, they should be required to make good use of it and make them see that if it breaks down, it is their responsibility to fix it.


4. Be careful people. So that this learning to make good use of things and take care of them is really internalized, to the point of becoming careful people, must be demanded not only with material objects, but also with themselves, with their image, with their academic tasks, with his way of taking care of other people, with the way of playing or carrying out domestic chores ...

Attitudes that we should avoid to teach to value what they have

As in all the learnings that we want to transmit to our children, the key to success will be in us, as a model that they will imitate.

1. Avoid laziness and sloppiness before things. We must not allow it to be part of their lives. By natural tendency, children experience these sensations, but our fundamental task is to demand that they not let themselves be overcome by them, that they make an effort to do things well, even though the body demands something else from us.

2. Avoid giving them everything they ask us, as well as simply replace what they have spoiled.

3. Do not substitute him in his task of taking care of things. We must give them the opportunity to do so, teach them and demand that they do so. If we do, we will not experience the need or the personal satisfaction to do it, essential aspect, the latter, to continue doing it.

To learn to value what you have, the best learning is to teach children that you can not get everything you want just by asking: you must have patience, deserve it and, depending on the circumstances, "work it out" with effort.

Conchita Requero
Advisor: María Campo. Director of Educational Centers Kimba.

Video: He Doesn’t Value You? The ONLY Way He’ll Ever Change (Matthew Hussey, Get The Guy)


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