Teaching Values To Children

As parents, we try to teach our kids right from wrong.? We lead by example, and hopefully, when the time comes for them to act on their own, we pray the right values have been instilled in them.

I have already failed miserably to instill a critical value to Thing 2.? Sure, he is only three years old and there is still time to change his course.? But this value is something so close to our core, so basic, that I fear it can never be undone.

Thing 2, my son, is a Washington Redskins fan.? There, I said it, and it pains me as I type these words.

Like many in the Washington, DC area, I was not born and raised here.? I grew up in the New York suburbs, a loyal New York Giants football fan.? We now live just a few miles from Redskins Park, the team headquarters in Ashburn, Virginia, and the influence of all the local Redskins fans was apparently too much for Thing 2 to resist.

At their preschool, Fridays are “wear your favorite team jersey to school” day.? Thing 1 wanted a Jets jersey, which I can live with because it is still New York.? Even though he only wants the Jets because he loves airplanes.? Thing 2 sees all his friends wearing Redskins shirts and now that is the only one he’ll wear.? If I tell him he can’t, he’ll only want it even more.

How could I have failed so early to teach the right values to my child?? Will he pass down his own misguided values to his children?? I know what needs to be done.? I need to concentrate all my efforts on baseball now…and not allow him to become a Red Sox fan.