1. Physical necessities. Families furnish food, clothes, and shelter. Many adults entice young children to eat more than their small bellies want, developing habits and appetites that are destructive decades later. Unfortunately, many adults encourage overeating, not realizing that overweight leads to life-threatening illness. (Berger, p. 229). It's important to make sure children eat healthy and to remember that being lean is natural for children. Piaget's advice for making children to eat nutritious food would be to make sure it looks tasty (children in preoperational stage focus on appearance), to put their food on a special plate (egocentrism is another characteristic of preoperational stage), and if something healthy is added to the food, to do it before the food is served to a child (static thinking dominates).
2. Learning. Families can support, encourage, and guide education. Research finds that direct instruction (in phonics; in mathematical symbols and procedures; in the vocabulary, grammar, and syntax of second languages) is useful. Also crucial are motivation, pride, and social interaction. School-aged children are great learners, but they can't learn everything. Adults must decide the specifics (Berger, p. 373).
Induction seems most likely to lead to internalized standards of morality. Reason, empathy, and expressions of disappointment , instead of using physical punishment and psychological control are proven to be far more effective in raising happy and loving adults.
3. Self-respect. Families can praise accomplishments and provide opportunities for success (in sports, the arts, or specific skills if academic success is difficult). Parents should encourage their children to take on every day challenges (inevitable or chosen). There are numerous strategies and methods that caregivers can use to help their children to overcome those challenges and to build positive self-esteem. One of them is to teach children that challenges are a normal part of life and no one is perfect. It's normal to make mistakes on the way to success especially dealing with a new challenge. That way children wouldn't be afraid of failure and would be able to focus more on the task which will make higher their chances for success.
It's also very important for children to learn how to deal with strong feelings such as anger, frustration, disappointment that often accompany challenging situations. It's necessary to teach children what the feelings are, how to label them and how to make a connection between the feelings and the situations that provoked them. A good way to teach that is talking to children using emotion language labeling their feelings and connecting them to a particular situation that caused them. Understanding their feelings and needs better helps children to develop close intimate relationships, their sense of belonging and ability to cope with the stress.
Parents can also help their children to overcome uncomfortable feelings by helping them to find the best specific technique to calm down instead of acting aggressively and violently. They can do that by observing the child and offering different kinds of activities that might interest them such as playing with pets, exercising, dancing, reading, listening to music. Each child would develop the technique that works the best for them. Being able to deal with a difficult situation will help a child to feel more confident and increase his or her