Teaching gratitude is one of trickiest things for a young child to understand but is one of the most important. Sure, it is more pleasant to be around children who are more thankful and polite, but there is more to it than that. Learning gratitude allows them to become aware of the feelings others have. It helps them develop empathy and other life skills along the way. Gratitude allows a person to understand and see that other people are doing things for them. It can really help them learn to focus on what is really important as well.
Although it can be tricky to teach our children how to be grateful, it is one of the most crucial concepts to teach our children. You can teach your child how to be more grateful with these three ways.
Set an example of gratitude
If you never set an example of being grateful, your child will never be grateful either. Children follow your footsteps in more ways than one, therefore, make sure you set an example of gratitude for them.
Say thank you, and they are likely to say thank you too.
Make sure you are also gracious to your children when your child does something for you. if your child cleans up or follows through on something you asked them then say thank you. They will soon know how good it feels to be noticed and shown gratitude for what they have done.
Balance expectations of being grateful
Teach your children to be thankful for everything that they have. This means the food on the table for meals, a bed to sleep in, a roof over their head, toys to play with, family, friends, and more. Part of learning how to be grateful is to be thankful for what they already have. You can help them learn what they can be grateful for by making a list of the things that they have, such as family, friends, siblings.
Don’t force them to always show gratitude
Learning to be grateful and showing it will take time for your child to learn. So if your child will not say thank you for something, don’t argue about it with them. Simply move on from the situation. You can then later speak to your child how being grateful for things or what others do for you makes them feel good when they express their thankfulness to them.
Over time, you can work with your child to teach them how to be grateful. Remember to use these three ways to help teach your child how to be more grateful. Hopefully within time your children will begin to take the initiation to thank someone for what they have done. You even might see yourself become more and more thankful for things as well.
Leave a Reply