Description: Raising kids is like an art. You need to impart some skills and characters that will help the child throughout their life. Compassion and a caring attitude are things that can be learned over time through practice. Here’s how to make your kids more compassionate.
Kindness is a quality your children can learn over time through practice. Raising kids with values like compassion is contributing positively to society. Besides protecting their health with things like natural remineralizing toothpaste, you should also prepare your children to be embraced by the world. There are things you can do that will encourage your kids to be kinder and gentler.
Here are some ideas you should try out.
- Develop a Caring Relationship With Your Children
The first step in raising caring kids is building a caring relationship with them. Children learn how to be compassionate if they’re treated that way. When your children feel loved, they become attached to you. This attachment makes them receptive to your teaching and values.
Plan emotionally intimate time with your kids. You can do this through nightly bedtime reading or some shared activity. Loving your children takes many forms, including tending to their emotional and physical needs, showing affection, and having a genuine interest in their lives.
- Be a Mentor and Role Model
A lot of the time, children learn through observation. If your actions don’t portray a caring attitude, your kids could pick those as lessons on how to treat others. Your children will only listen if you walk the talk. Practice fairness, honesty, and care for others.
Also, model skills like peaceful conflict resolution and anger management. It’s easy to reflect if your children respect you, so if you think they don’t, ask yourself why and how you can fix the situation.
- Volunteer With Your Child
Raising kids right includes involving them in activities that teach them valuable lessons. Expose your children to situations unique to their own to broaden their worldviews and build empathy. It’s vital to do a self-assessment of the things you’re comfortable talking about before volunteering with your children.
Showing them it’s right to help others prepares them for a world where kindness is needed. Help them understand the plight of others and why it’s important to intervene for those who need assistance.
- Expose Children to Animals or Pets
One way I’ve been raising my kids to be caring is by introducing them to pets and animals. Being around animals is an excellent formula for helping your children identify emotions. It helps them connect with others intimately and be gentle when around animals and other people.
Pets can be emotional, so kids can learn from the different emotions a pet will display. Over time, the child learns how to respond to the pet when it shows specific emotions. When your dog jumps on you when you’re back from work, you can explain to your kids this is how the pet communicates the emotion of happiness.
- Use Holidays to Teach Giving
While raising step kids, you can use different opportunities to connect with them and teach valuable traits. Holidays are a good opportunity to apply creative methods to develop empathy in your kids. You can include them in present shopping for someone else. This introduces them to the art of giving as they can see someone open a gift they contributed in choosing.
Also, you can tell your kids to prepare for Santa by filling boxes with the toys they no longer want. Help them donate the toys to kids who want them.
- Use Non-Personalized Examples
Raising happy kids requires using different methods, ensuring spontaneity. Books and movies are a powerful way you can show your children examples of different emotions. It’s difficult for children to distance themselves from emotional reactions when they picture what someone else feels. You can build these skills by taking personalization out of them. When watching a movie, highlight the character with strong emotion and have a conversation about those feelings.
- Identify and Label Emotions
Start asking your kids what they feel to help them label emotions. This could begin from as early as 3 or 4 years. Make physical connections to feelings to help your kids understand emotions. As they grow up, they’ll understand how other people are affected by these emotions.
Conclusion
Imparting the right skills in your kids is a continuous process that you should begin at an early stage. It’s important to teach them the different emotions, including compassion and caring for others. Lead by example as kids learn best through observation.
How do you encourage your kids to become more compassionate? Leave a comment below.
