What is the ideal home environment for kids?

Learn about: What is the ideal home environment for kids? from Edwin A. Locke, PhD,...
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What is the ideal home environment for kids?

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Well, many people ask, what's the ideal home environment? And I think, the first answer that I would give is make home a sane universe. What's a sane universe? A sane universe is, first of all, where parents have clear expectations of what a child should be doing, and the parent's role is to set those expectations until the child grows up. You make those clear and enforce them. Such as, "You may not watch - Do your computer or watch any TV until you finished reading time and your home work." Maybe by then it's bedtime, maybe not, so you have clear expectations which are enforced. Another one might be, "I don't want you to have more than one" - I'm making this up - "More than one softdrink a week." Softdrinks are one of the worst things that you can ingest, apparently, according to the health experts. So, "I want you, at school or at home, have healthy beverages, and here are some examples." Another thing to make a sane universe is don't have constant fights with your spouse. If that's happening, something's wrong with your relationship and a child learns to conclude people are irrational. So, "I think I'll study physics because I don't want a world that deals with people." Maybe physics isn't really their interest, maybe it is. So, parents shouldn't be constantly screaming and yelling at each other, there's something very, very wrong if that happens, you may not need family counselling. Another aspect of a sane universe is don't lie to the children, don't lie to them. Tell them the truth and don't lie to each other in front of them because no matter what you say, kids learn from role models.

Learn about: What is the ideal home environment for kids? from Edwin A. Locke, PhD,...

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Edwin A. Locke, PhD

Psychologist & Author

Edwin A. Locke, PhD, is Dean's Professor (Emeritus) of Leadership and Motivation at the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his BA from Harvard in 1960 and his PhD in Industrial Psychology from Cornell University in 1964.He has published over 300 chapters, notes and articles in professional journals, on such subjects as work motivation, job satisfaction, incentives, and the philosophy of science. He is also the author or editor of 12 books, including The Selfish Path to Romance: How to Love with Passion and Reason, Study Methods and Study Motivation, Goal Setting: A Motivational Technique That Works, A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance, Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior, The Prime Movers: Traits of the Great Wealth Creators  and Postmodernism and Management: Pros, Cons and the Alternative. He is internationally known for his research on goal setting. A recent survey found that Locke's goal setting theory (developed with G. Latham) was ranked #1 in importance among 73 management theories. His work has been supported by numerous research grants, and he has served as consultant to research firms and private businesses.Dr. Locke has been elected a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, the Academy of Management, and has been a consulting editor for leading journals. He was a winner of the Outstanding Teacher-Scholar Award at the University of Maryland, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the Career Contribution Award from the Academy of Management (Human Resource Division), the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Management (Organizational Behavior Division), and the James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science. He has been a writer and lecturer for the Ayn Rand Institute and is interested in the application of the philosophy of Objectivism to behavioral sciences.

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