It used to be that our very survival was in question. A hundred years ago when the average life expectancy was around 40 years, parents had a lot of children as a means of insuring their future when some inevitably died. Giving them food and shelter was all many aspired to.

My how the times have changed. These days parents shower their children with a cornucopia of gifts and opportunities, inadvertently undermining their efforts to love them well.

We've raised our five children to adulthood now and like the way they've turned out. We made a lot of mistakes, but looking back we made a few key decisions that make a big
difference.

We wanted to teach them gratitude, respect, and responsibility, so here's what we did:

Gratitude: We insisted that they learn to say "thank you" for virtually everything. We didn't
allow them to say things like, "I don't want that."

Respect: Kids these days can be so disrespectful. We tied many discipline issues back to respect. Fighting with siblings was huge - it showed a lack of respect for boundaries and personhood.

Responsibility: Chores were a given. If they wanted a pet, they bought the pet food. We encouraged them to go on mission trips and asked them to raise their own support.

Check out what two of my kids are doing right now:
http://taliabarnes.theworldrace.org/
http://sethbarnesjr.theworldrace.org/