That's what I write my college essay about: It helps if, in the course of character development, your kids get to see *you* make a poor choice and then own it, apologize, and do what it takes to make it right. They will see that making a mistake isn't the end of the world but nor should one expect to get away with being a jerk. I once made a joke in poor taste about kicking our cat, and my kid said something along the lines of how he would see me as a lesser person if I ever did that, and I had to admit that yes, he would be right, and I wouldn't do such a thing in reality; it was a bad joke.