A married couple asked the Rebbe for a blessing that their children should behave properly. The reply seems simple, but since I have not seen it in any parenting book, I’m including it here. Sometimes the most obvious is also the most inconvenient—and therefore the most avoided:
Behave properly yourselves. When the children see your example, they will naturally want to do the same as their parents.
Then it is only a matter of talking with them, step by step, day after day, and eventually it will help.
But children and adults should not behave the same. I think this is overly simplistic, because proper behavior for adults is not proper for children. Children should not drive cars, but that does not mean that parents should not drive cars. Parents should do many things that children will see and want to emulate (and parents do one thing that children should not see). It is not practical for adults not to do anything that children should not do. Children need to be taught which adult behaviors are acceptable for children and which are only for adults. Observing adults behaving properly is not enough for children to learn how children should behave.