Wondering what values are right for your family? Here’s where to start!

You cannot teach your children what you cannot define. Read more to learn how to label your family’s values as an important first step raising happy, healthy, and value-driven children.


You may be struggling to put a name on the values you want to teach to your children. It can be very useful to firmly identify which values are central to your family so that you can talk to your children, in age appropriate language, specifically about what should guides them in making decisions and choosing actions.

Tips on how to start raising value-driven children

Obviously, every family is different and has different ideas about what is important and what it means to be a good person. There is no definitive set of values that all parents must teach to their children to ensure success. Every family is unique and has the freedom to choose what is best for them.

However, to help your children navigate social interactions, be successful in school, and be pleasant people to be around, there are a few values that transcend the differences between most families. These values include: honesty, respect, and self-control. It is very difficult for children to learn how every person has both rights and responsibilities if not taught honesty, respect, and self-control. Therefore, most families can start with these three values while determining which other values are important to teach their children.

In order to transmit values to children, it is imperative to provide a consistent, transparent, and clear definition of what your family believes so that your children have a well-defined idea of what they are learning. Labeling abstract concepts such as values can be a helpful tool in clearly defining ideas for children who may still think concretely. It also helps you, as a parent, to maintain a consistent message because you have chosen a word that represents what you are trying to teach your children.

For this reason, here is an abbreviated list of some of the values you can choose to transmit to your children. This list contains over 400 values but is not exhaustive. Additionally, there are values that seem to be similar or synonymous with others. They are included because each value name represents an abstract idea, which means that a value’s name may mean something slightly different to one person than another. Therefore, all variations were included because some may resonate with you better than others.

Start now by giving a name to the values you want to share with your child

The goal of this exercise is to help you define your family’s values. Having a wide selection makes that easier, although it can feel overwhelming in the beginning. Start by marking the values that resonate to you when you read them. Then see if some of the values selected are similar in nature. Keep refining until you think you have found a list of values that help guide your life and that you want to share with your children.

Then, that’s it! This is the first step to raise happy, healthy, and value-driven children. You cannot teach what you cannot define. Knowing what names to label your family’s values is an important first step.

So, with no further delay, here are just some of the values you can choose to teach your children:

Abundance

Acceptance

Accessibility

Accomplishment

Accountability

Accuracy

Achievement

Acknowledgement

Activeness

Adaptability

Adoration

Adroitness

Advancement

Adventure

Affection

Affluence

Aggressiveness

Agility

Alertness

Altruism

Amazement

Ambition

Amusement

Anticipation

Appreciation

Approachability

Approval

Art

Articulacy

Artistry

Assertiveness

Assurance

Attentiveness

Attractiveness

Audacity

Availability

Awareness

Awe

Balance

Beauty

Being the best

Belonging

Benevolence

Bliss

Boldness

Bravery

Brilliance

Buoyancy

Calmness

Camaraderie

Candor

Capability

Care

Carefulness

Celebrity

Certainty

Challenge

Change

Charity

Charm

Chastity

Cheerfulness

Clarity

Cleanliness

Clear-mindedness

Cleverness

Closeness

Comfort

Commitment

Community

Compassion

Competence

Competition

Completion

Composure

Concentration

Confidence

Conformity

Congruency

Connection

Consciousness

Conservation

Consistency

Contentment

Continuity

Contribution

Control

Conviction

Conviviality

Coolness

Cooperation

Cordiality

Correctness

Country

Courage

Courtesy

Craftiness

Creativity

Credibility

Cunning

Curiosity

Daring

Decisiveness

Decorum

Deference

Delight

Dependability

Depth

Desire

Determination

Devotion

Devoutness

Dexterity

Dignity

Diligence

Direction

Directness

Discipline

Discovery

Discretion

Diversity

Dominance

Dreaming

Drive

Duty

Dynamism

Eagerness

Ease

Economy

Ecstasy

Education

Effectiveness

Efficiency

Elation

Elegance

Empathy

Encouragement

Endurance

Energy

Enjoyment

Entertainment

Enthusiasm

Environmentalism

Ethics

Euphoria

Excellence

Excitement

Exhilaration

Expectancy

Expediency

Experience

Expertise

Exploration

Expressiveness

Extravagance

Extroversion

Exuberance

Fairness

Faith

Fame

Family

Fascination

Fashion

Fearlessness

Ferocity

Fidelity

Fierceness

Financial- independence

Firmness

Fitness

Flexibility

Flow

Fluency

Focus

Fortitude

Frankness

Freedom

Friendliness

Friendship

Frugality

Fun

Gallantry

Generosity

Gentility

Giving

Grace

Gratitude

Gregariousness

Growth

Guidance

Happiness

Harmony

Health

Heart

Helpfulness

Heroism

Holiness

Honesty

Honor

Hopefulness

Hospitality

Humility

Humor

Hygiene

Imagination

Impact

Impartiality

Independence

Individuality

Industry

Influence

Ingenuity

Inquisitiveness

Insightfulness

Inspiration

Integrity

Intellect

Intelligence

Intensity

Intimacy

Intrepidness

Introspection

Introversion

Intuition

Intuitiveness

Inventiveness

Investing

Involvement

Joy

Judiciousness

Justice

Keenness

Kindness

Knowledge

Leadership

Learning

Liberation

Liberty

Lightness

Liveliness

Logic

Longevity

Love

Loyalty

Majesty

Making a difference

Marriage

Mastery

Maturity

Meaning

Meekness

Mellowness

Meticulousness

Mindfulness

Modesty

Motivation

Mysteriousness

Nature

Neatness

Nerve

Noncomformity

Obedience

Open-mindedness

Openness

Optimism

Order

Organization

Originality

Outdoors

Outlandishness

Outrageousness

Partnership

Patience

Passion

Peace

Perceptiveness

Perfection

Perkiness

Perseverance

Persistence

Persuasiveness

Philanthropy

Piety

Playfulness

Pleasantness

Pleasure

Poise

Polish

Popularity

Potency

Power

Practicality

Pragmatism

Precision

Preparedness

Presence

Pride

Privacy

Proactivity

Professionalism

Prosperity

Prudence

Punctuality

Purity

Rationality

Realism

Reason

Reasonableness

Recognition

Recreation

Refinement

Reflection

Relaxation

Reliability

Relief

Religiousness

Reputation

Resilience

Resolution

Resolve

Resourcefulness

Respect

Responsibility

Rest

Restraint

Reverence

Richness

Rigor

Sacredness

Sacrifice

Sagacity

Saintliness

Sanguinity

Satisfaction

Science

Security

Self-control

Selflessness

Self-reliance

Self-respect

Sensitivity

Sensuality

Serenity

Service

Sexiness

Sexuality

Sharing

Shrewdness

Significance

Silence

Silliness

Simplicity

Sincerity

Skillfulness

Solidarity

Solitude

Sophistication

Soundness

Speed

Spirit

Spirituality

Spontaneity

Spunk

Stability

Status

Stealth

Stillness

Strength

Structure

Success

Support

Supremacy

Surprise

Sympathy

Synergy

Teaching

Teamwork

Temperance

Thankfulness

Thoroughness

Thoughtfulness

Thrift

Tidiness

Timeliness

Traditionalism

Tranquility

Transcendence

Trust

Trustworthiness

Truth

Understanding

Unflappability

Uniqueness

Unity

Usefulness

Utility

Valor

Variety

Victory

Vigor

Virtue

Vision

Vitality

Vivacity

Volunteering

Warmheartedness

Warmth

Watchfulness

Wealth

Willfulness

Willingness

Winning

Wisdom

Wittiness

Wonder

Worthiness

Youthfulness

Zeal


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