As the mother of a sixth grade middle school I am finding it much more difficult to ensure that her character stays intact. This is the time when your basic home training and Christian values come into play. This is the time for the teaching moments and talking to them about how to treat someone, utilizing the Golden Rule. I find it challenging to teach her how to be discerning about who the real friends are. I want her to understand that even though she may not understand someone's lifestyle that it is important to respect everyone. Teaching my daughter about how to be a friend and to always be kind and compassionate is easy for me that's our rule in our household, that's how we live our life. I have witnessed her friends exhibiting not so kind behaviors; and my child wants to be friends with these kids but when you see there's a destructive pattern going on and you don't want her to have friends like this or go along with the crowd. I taught her to not follow the crowd to be a leader. So my message is every moment of your life with your child is a teaching moment, every situation, television show, a movie and interactions with people, everything is a teaching moment This is the time when you can teach them how to behave, conduct themselves and be respectful and kind and compassionate.
