20 Must Have Character Traits For Your Kids To Succeed

Character Traits for Kids

Are you always worried about making your child a better human being? Are you confused about which character traits should he have and how to instill them to evolve into a better person? Every parent is always perplexed about instilling good character traits in their child so they can learn valuable lessons for a lifetime. We understand that molding your child into a better personality isn’t an easy task but it is important to mold them in the right way right from the starting years of their life. This article will help you determine what character traits are, why are they important, the must-have character traits, and how you can instill those traits into your child’s personality.

What Are Character Traits?

To start with, Character Trait is a term used to define values and beliefs a person holds, and those traits are reflected in one’s personality. Character Traits can be either good or bad and decides a person’s actions, crucial decisions in challenging situations, and overall lifestyle. A person can learn these traits from various sources like parents, peers, teachers, and even entertainment sources like TV, films, and media.

Why are Character Traits Important?

Teaching character traits to your children is a lifelong process and a child’s academic education is only one part of their total education. You need to go beyond their academic goals and instill in them the right character traits for their overall development and education. To be specific, cultivating positive character traits in your child is important because

1. They help your child remain healthy mentally, physically, and emotionally.
2. They help them bring out their best versions, become kind and generous, and are successful not just academically but personally too.
3. They shape your child’s persona and character evolving them into better and socially active versions of themselves.
4. They help them develop a good attitude towards life and help them confront challenging situations easily.
5. It is a crucial aspect of their development specifically in their early years of life because children are quick learners in their early years.
6. It requires your time and effort and no formal training.
7. Not only do they have a lifetime impact on your child for their benefit but also help you do your bit in shaping a better society.

The Must-Have Character Traits For Your Child

If you are worried about what are the right traits that will have a positive and lasting impact on your child, this list will help you know them and work on them with your child.

1. Honesty – Honesty is the most essential character that the child must develop from a younger age only. The first step is to not lie and honesty later turns out to make them loyal, responsible, ethical, and morally stronger individuals. It helps them differentiate between right and wrong and align their beliefs with the certain and right things only. You can instill honesty in your child by telling them the repercussions of dishonesty and appreciate them every time they are honest with you. Be honest with them and become their role models so they never hide their mistakes and speak them out to you.
2. Forgiveness – Teaching your child to give second chances to people and framing the forgiving mindset can help the building up of grudges in them for small things. The grudges later lead to your child not liking certain people in life. To make them learn the nobility of forgiveness ask them to list out why a person who did wrong to them would have acted in a certain way, putting them in someone’s shoes may also help them become empathetic.
3. Hard work – Hard work and dedication are the key steps to success, make your child understand that anything is achievable with hard work and see them become successful leaders wherever they go. The toughest challenges and hurdles will seem basic to them if they have been trained to work hard and it will make them better leaders in the future. You can set in small and short-term goals for them to achieve and ask them to keep making efforts even after their failures. Praise them when they are working hard and leave certain things completely to them to achieve.
4. Responsible – Start from the basics like being responsible for their homework and studies, responsibility is the greatest value they can earn which makes them earn respect and appreciation from everyone around. Being responsible will help them in each step of their lives.
5. Optimism – Seeing the glass half-filled always is necessary for your child. They must have a positive outlook towards life to help them see the brighter and positive side of everything. This positive outlook will make them non-quitters, persistent, enthusiastic, and participative in all aspects, it will also help them grow healthy. Finding the good in the bad and looking at failures as opportunities are crucial for the child to understand in today’s world with an ever-increasing growth rate of depression and suicides. Understand and be there for your child, make consistent efforts and help them improve with low grades rather than forcing it on them.
6. Dreaming – Let your child dream big and aim for the sky. Let his imaginations run and horizons expand. Help him set practical goals and direct his growth towards his dreams.
7. Humbleness – Being humble and down to earth is the most valued attribute in your child. Make him learn not to brag about his privileges by making him realize that there are people who are not as privileged and making gratefulness and empathy his strengths.
8. Bravery & Courage – Bravery and courage will help your child stand for the truth and overcome their fears. Being bold to stand up against any unfair act and courage to face difficult situations in life in a better way will help them stand out. You can start this by building their confidence and making them participate in stage events.
9. Independence – Teaching your child not to rely on anyone and taking complete accountability for all their successes and failures will help build their self-esteem. It will also help him have a positive mindset and make him realize that he is not dependent on anyone for his success.
10. Curiosity – Curiosity though annoying for working parents have been known to be the root of the most successful people. Curiosity helps them understand their surroundings better and seeking answers to their questions enhances creativity and personal growth. They come up with innovative ideas and put their knowledge to productive use. The first thing you can do is answer their questions patiently and encourage them to notice their surroundings.
11. Gratefulness – Your kids need to value things and be grateful for all they have. This virtue makes them kinder, compassionate, patient, and instills in them the quality of self-control. Encourage them for donating, ask them to make a gratitude jar, and thank god for all his blessings.
12. Tolerance – Teaching your child to be tolerant, calm, and patient towards people can help them become successful. Although while teaching children tolerance, make sure you do it the right way so they should not see it as resisting inappropriate acts.
13. Helpfulness – Inculcating the habit of helping others in your child will be of real significance to them. It will help them create connections, and be social because people would know that they can count on them. Helpfulness will also make your child a good team player. You can ask your children right from the start to help you with household chores and encourage them to help people across the streets.
14. Discipline – Discipline in your child will take them places and earn respect from people around them. Disciplined people are always successful and make great leaders becoming the charismatic ones around.
15. Punctuality – Making your child learn the value of time and specifically others’ time can make them excel in their academics during the early years and also professionally in their careers ahead. Punctuality inculcates a sense of responsibility and induces reliability in others’.
16. Appreciative – Appreciation will help your child build up qualities like combined efforts, and teamwork and help him understand the importance of ‘we’. A person who appreciates is the person most appreciated.
17. Empathy – Parents need to stress the importance of caring for others as much as they stress the importance of personal excellence and good grades. Empathy makes your child reliable and helps foster their emotional intelligence also making them realize the worth of the privileges they have.
18. Social Skills – Building social skills is important because social interaction is a necessity for both children and adults. Some people have that outgoing personality to bond and interact with others while others face problems while doing so. Children with good social skills perform exceptionally well, have a good self-image, and are good at resolving conflicts.
19. Confidence – There is a strong correlation between how your child feels about themselves and how they act and therefore it becomes necessary to instill the quality of confidence in your child. The non-confident people face difficulties at every step in life from school to job interviews and you can change that by praising and building their self-esteem. Allowing children to fail sometimes and overcome them will make them confident to face future challenges.
20. Observant – Being observant like being curious is essential for your child. Being observant and encouraging them to notice the surroundings and finding the purpose behind things will help them grow into street-smart kids.

Other than the list of these characteristic traits for kids, there are other traits also that you should instill in your child gradually like kindness, determination, compassion, fairness, generosity, perseverance, respect, sincerity, resilience, integrity, resourcefulness, creativity, assertiveness, humility, hopefulness, equality, etc for them to grow into better individuals personally and professionally.

Right Ways to Inculcate These Character Traits

If now you are wondering how you can achieve this goal of inculcating positive character traits in the right way, go through this brief list that will assist you:

• Model these character traits in you and become a living example for them.
• Until you don’t practice what you preach, it won’t have the required impact. Remember that the child learns the most through visual perception. They learn what they see.
• Keep your expectations low and efforts high. Go slow and stray and do not expect them to change overnight.
• Increase the impact of those traits by fun activities and sharing stories, your life experiences that will help them learn important life lessons.
• Allow them to take inspiration from the surroundings from the life stories of successful people.
• Pay equal attention to yourself and become a positive and appreciative parent for your child to bond and gain a comfort level with you.
• Rather than reacting abruptly to their mistakes, make them learn and make them aware of alternatives as to how they could have dealt with a particular situation better. Help them learn through trial and failure.
• Pay close attention to your child and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Appreciate the strengths and help them overcome their weaknesses.
• Inculcate the habit of reading books and learning from them.
• Give them daily instructions bit by bit and take away their privileges only when it is needed.

Conclusion

On a final note, knowing the importance of these character traits and how to inculcate them is just not enough. You also need to know the child’s learning pace and grasping capability to understand that the child can’t learn everything at once. Be their role models and start by inculcating those traits in yourself. Do not force them to change overnight and remember that time and experience are the best teachers. Lastly, set long-term parenting goals, keep your efforts consistent, and be ready to face failures and resistance because all this comes along with shaping your child’s personality.