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This is a collaborative post.
Maybe it’s something you’ve been keeping from your children for a while, but you’ve been able to influence it in other ways, like going on a family holiday while minimising your carbon footprint, but introducing your children to an ethical lifestyle that they can follow is easier than you think. When it comes to introducing our kids to an ethical lifestyle, we are the ones that lead by example, but we have to remember they have other influences in their lives. How can we influence an ethical lifestyle without enforcing it?
Make Your Habits Theirs
They won’t have a influence of what sort of car you buy, the food you purchase, or even the dentist that you visit! As the parents, you have the final say on a lot of things, but if you make it a habit before they start to question it, it becomes well-worn. It doesn’t have to be an overbearing thing. By having them visit a sustainable dentist like Bright & White or an ethical shop to buy certain items, it’s not something they would necessarily question. Because the very act of choosing as sustainable supplier or an ethical resource can require a lot of research, once we’ve got into the habit of finding the right ones, it’s unlikely that our children will deviate from this. But, of course, this is all down to one thing…
Starting Them Young
While, again, it’s about the habits we instill, if we can teach them the good lessons early on in life, we won’t necessarily have to explain every little aspect. We lead by example, and we must remember that our children look to us, even subconsciously, as the blueprint for life. So if we practice what we preach, it’s far easier for our children to follow these ideals.
Encouraging Environmentally-Friendly Activities
Whether this is walking, recycling, and everything in between, if we can encourage these environmentally-friendly activities, they become a learned habit. Something as simple as getting our children to turn off the lights when they’re not in use or not showering as long normal all have a positive impact.
Helping Them Understand The Impacts Of An Unethical Lifestyle
The one word that proves most frustrating in a parent-child relationship is “why,” and while we may very well get fed up of explaining the reasons for every little thing, if we are getting them to do things that are environmentally-friendly, but they don’t see why they need to do it, then perhaps we have to provide them with the bigger picture. This can be a little bit too much information, so be careful in terms of how you word it. We don’t have to say that the planet is going to implode if they don’t recycle, but it’s about communicating the fact that we all have a duty to the planet that can be undertaken in simple ways.
If we really want to make an impact, we’ve got to start at home. And introducing our children to an ethical lifestyle is something we can do right away, in the habits that we teach.