There are many things that a parent has to teach their children, and all of them are important in some way. One that’s particularly important for a number of reasons, including the fact that it will help others and ensure the child themselves becomes a good member of society, is kindness. You might think that kindness is just something children pick up and do without thinking, and to some extent, that is true. However, if you want to be sure that your children will be kind people for the right reasons as they age, it’s worth giving them some extra lessons in kindness and teach Your Kids To Be Kind to help them. With that in mind, here are some ideas to help you get started.
Model Kindness
The very best thing you can do to teach your children to be kind is to model kindness so they can see you and copy your actions. It would be impossible to teach your kids to be kind if you went on to be unkind, or at least unthinking, yourself. When you can demonstrate kindness in even the smallest of ways, it shows your children how important it is, and they’ll be able to see firsthand what to do and how good it makes people feel.
Children are like sponges, and they’ll absorb anything they see and hear, and this is often a good way to teach them many lessons in life. By living and acting the way you want your children to, you’ll become a better person, and you’ll raise good people – the more parents who can do that, the better place the world will become.
Teach Your Kids To Be Kind – Encourage Empathy
Something that always underpins kindness is empathy – to be kind to someone, you have to understand how they’re feeling and what they need, and then you have to want to help them; that’s empathy. It’s important in that case to teach your children how to see things from other people’s perspectives so they can think about how someone else might feel in a certain situation. You can do this when you’re watching TV or reading books to help them understand these feelings and that other people will be affected by what they do (good or bad), but ideally, you’ll model the behaviour yourself, as we mentioned above.
One great idea is to give your children a donation as a gift, for example. This means you’ll donate money to a good cause on their behalf as a birthday or Christmas gift – or for any other reason. Your children will able to see how their selflessness has helped someone else in a tangible way, and it will hopefully encourage them to do more in the future.
Teach Inclusivity
Kindness goes well beyond what one person can do for one other person, and it should actually be a whole way of life, ensuring that we treat everyone we meet, no matter who they are or what walk of life they might come from, with the same kindness. That’s why it’s a great thing to do to teach children about inclusivity and how they can appreciate the diversity the world has to offer. Talk about different cultures, religions, backgrounds, abilities, and so on, and make sure your children understand that even if we look different or have different traditions and beliefs, underneath it all, we’re all the same.
When you create this kind of inclusive environment, perhaps by encouraging them to make friends with someone at school who seems different to them (at least at first), children will quickly learn to understand that everyone is unique, but everyone deserves kindness. As they get older, this will just become second nature.
Teach Your Kids To Be Kind – Small Acts
Another way to teach your children about kindness is to ensure they know that even the smallest nice act can be worthwhile – they don’t have to do big, grand gestures or even have their kindness noticed by others to say they’re kind; it’s about the act itself, not what other people think of it.
Small acts of kindness could include holding the door open for someone, complimenting someone’s abilities, helping a friend with some schoolwork, buying some sweets for someone for no reason other than ‘just because’, and so on. These seemingly minor acts of kindness can have a massive impact on someone’s day, and they might even go on to do a small act of kindness for someone else, and so on. It’s always worth being kind, even if you’re not sure anyone is around to see it or if the gesture will be appreciated.
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