Expectations for Children:

You want your children to become effective, successful adults. Reaching this goal begins with having clear notions about what qualities and characteristics effective and successful adults share. You then encourage them in your children. Alternatively, those qualities and characteristics not found in effective and successful adults should be discouraged.

Most all adult characteristics, good or bad, are seen in children at some stage in their development. Small children, for example, take things that do not belong to them. With adults, this is called stealing. Three- and four-year-old children have temper tantrums as a normal part of their emotional development. If they still have tantrums when they are twenty-five or thirty years old, it is clearly unacceptable. Small children frequently misrepresent what has happened and do not tell parents how things really are. In adults, this is called lying.

Small children are loving and affectionate. Hopefully, they are still that way when they are grown. Small children are spontaneous and enthusiastic. If all goes well, they are still that way when they are adults. Qualities and characteristics desirable or undesirable in adults should be encouraged and discouraged as your children grow and mature.