Have you sat with your children, mainly the ones getting older, and talked about what is right and wrong and what you believe? Or, are you letting someone else do it?

In an age where everything is “ok” and “it’s a free country,” I think we need to make sure we don’t get caught up in the crowd and assume that our family values and morals get passed along with our genetics. And if we aren’t talking about them and making sure our children learn them, then something else is going to fill that space in our children’s heads.

I’m not here today to get into the specifics–but more to point out that–if you’re not teaching and explaining to your children what you believe and why, someone else might be.

I had a conversation the other day about something one of my children wanted to buy from a “YouTuber,” and it caused me to look a little deeper. After much research, I found out that this “YouTuber” was not who I wanted my children looking up to. After talking with my child about this, she was telling me, “Well, it’s a free country; they can do what they want,” and she still wanted the product. It made me take a moment to explain that when we support people and businesses that are not aligned with what we believe, then we are still supporting them, and we need to make these decisions consistently, not just by chance or thinking it does not matter. 

After this talk with my child, it made me sit back and wonder if we should sit down and talk about what we believe and what we stand for. Or am I assuming that they will just inherit it? Well, I know that’s not going to happen. I have learned that seldom do we all not know something and leave it at that. “We just don’t know” tends to get filled in with what we assume or “find on the Internet.” Most of the time, this is not true or accurate. Meaning, is this normal or moral? Right? Wrong? And if we cannot instill in our children what is, then someone else will, or worse, there will not be that voice in the back of their heads, and you end up with everything being “ok” and “nothing really matters.” This goes back to the common sense things, but common sense is not just something you’re born with; you have to have the borders/frames taught to you by the ones you love, and then, and only then, can you make decisions using “common sense.” 

After all, as they say, common sense is not so common these days.