1) CORE VALUES: WORK ETHIC

The Morehead, Bilbrey, Well’s, and Greninger families have a tradition that every Christmas Eve, we all go eat at Red Lobster and then we come over to the Morehead house and exchange family presents and have desert. Of course this means one thing for the Morehead family- the house must be cleaned. This year, it was a full family affair. I was cleaning floors, Wife was dusting and Rose was picking up the dust rags and placing them in the trash. After a while, Rose got tired, sat on the floor and said, “Mom, I am done! I am too tired to work anymore!” Then, from the other room I heard my wife very exuberantly and succinctly lay out the following work mantra:

• We are Morehead’s
• We are self starters
• We see what needs to be done
• We create a plan
• We make no excuses
• We enlist the help of others
• We complete the plan
• We move on to the next objective

Of course I nearly fell in the floor with laughter as “Dr. Wife” just laid out an entire work ethic for our four year-old, but if we as parents don’t outline our expectations who will? If we don’t do it now, when will we. Certainly she did not get it all, and there is no way she can repeat it, but the seed was sown, that in our family, this is how we do business. I am thankful that my wife and I are both in agreement that in order for our child to have a bright and healthy future, we must start forming her “life-values” NOW!

What are some of the “life-values” that you are teaching your children. I would love to hear your responses in the comments below.