Is it possible to teach kindness? (The good news is yes.) Four tips for helping your kids learn compassion.
What You Need To Know
While teaching your child to tie their shoes is fairly straightforward, how do you teach kindness and compassion? Researchers suggest four substantial ways you can help kindness grow:
- Spend time with your children, and show them kindness and love.
- Explain how their actions affect others--both kind and unkind.
- Expand your circle of friends to include people from diverse backgrounds.
- Be a model of thoughtful, considerate behavior towards others.
How Can You Help
The next time your child acts in a selfish or thoughtless way, talk to them gently about how that must feel to the other person. Kids need opportunities to reflect on their actions.
No matter how generous you think you are, push yourself to become more giving. (Generosity is not about money.) Rather than letting the door hit someone in the face, hold it open as you enter the post office. Let the person with a fussy baby go ahead of you in line at the grocery store. Let your kids see that giving is how we move through the world with grace.
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