Life Lessons I Hope To Pass On To My Kids-Part I

1. Find healthy ways to deal with stress, anger and sadness. You don't need to comfort eat, do drugs, drink alcohol or any other distructive behaviours to deal with problems.
2. Be very careful with credit cards and debt and your credit score. There is good debt (A mortgage, student loans etc) but you have to be sure to make your payments on time - and there are bad debts (consumer debt, where you don't have anything to show for what you borrowed money for: food, clothing, fun spending.) Again, be sure to make your payments in full, on time and before you are charged interest. Keep the number of credit cards you have to a minimum, it really isn't necessary to have more than one.
   http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2013/04/01/a-seven-year-old-learns-about-credit-cards/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thesimpledollar+%28The+Simple+Dollar%29&utm_content=FaceBook
3. Keep your banking simple: The more accounts you have, the harder it is to keep everything organized and the more likely you are to make costly mistakes. The fewer accounts you have, the fewer financial institutes you deal with you’ll find that it's easier to avoid late fees or overdrafts as well as you may be able to reap more benefits.
4. Don't ever get sucked into talking bad about yourself or your body just because other girls are talking about what they don't like about themselves/their bodies. You might notice, that whenever I hear people saying bad things about themselves, I always say something like, "Don't say bad things about yourself."
5. You don't always have to get along with or like everyone, and people aren't always going to get along with or like you - but don't be mean or cruel or get pulled into a fight. Walking away is not losing, it's refusing to play a game that has no winners (and you can possibly avoid getting into trouble or getting hurt needlessly)
6. Always find ways to be nice and generous to others. You will find that by being nice, people will be nice in return. Be nice and give the benefit of doubt to people who seem to be grumpy, mean or just plain rude - it could be that they are just having a bad day. (But don't allow them to be disrespectful to you or treat you badly.)
7. Don't lie. ALWAYS tell the truth. You have less to worry about and less to remember. AND people don't have a problem trusting you if they know you tell the truth. Even if you are scared of getting a bad reaction from telling the truth, whoever it is will be WAY more upset to find out you lied and felt you couldn't tell them the truth.
8. Think about how you would like to be treated by others - then treat everyone better than that.
9. Take measures to take care of yourself. Dress well, brush your teeth and hair and be the best that you can be.
10. Grandma Mary always told us (us being me, your Uncle Mathew and Aunty Spring) growing up when she left us to stay with friends or family, "Say what you need, say what you feel, and say what you want - always stand up for yourself! No one else will."