Spoilt behaviour has become quite the epidemic, which is why exploring gratitude with children couldn’t be anymoreimportant. Not only is it important from a social perspective and making others feel valued, but it can help children immensely with self-confidence. Practising gratitude allows children to recognise how loved they are, and can help them see how far their support system spans. This allows children to feel loved, a sense of belonging and thus feel confident. If you’re trying to work on gratitude with your child, below is some guidance shared with us by a prep school in Buckinghamshire.
Remind Them to Say Thank You
Reminders can help make saying thank you a habit. They will help avoid your child coming across unappreciative and are good manners.
Other Ways to Say Thank You
Saying thank you is not the only way children can show their gratitude. They can do so through sentimental gestures such as writing a hand-crafted thank you note, creating a gift, returning the favour or something else that they would appreciate.
Create a Gratitude Jar
It is something they can regularly exercise as a form of mindfulness on a personal level by creating a gratitude jar. This is a jar they can fill with all of the things they have to be grateful for. That could be the good weather you’ve been having recently, friends that have been there to help them or simply good health which not all of us are fortunate to have. It can be a nice exercise for children to reflect, see life in a more positive light and physically count their blessings.
Keeping A Gratitude Journal
If they prefer, they can keep a gratitude journal instead where they record the things they have to be grateful for everyday. This can help your child with their mental health and seeing how lucky they are as well as their writing skills as it encourages children to write on a more regular basis.
Look for Silver linings
Looking at the upside of bad situations can help your child with developing their gratitude and deal with unexpected situations in life much better. When things don’t go their way, encourage them to consider how much worse they might possibly be and the things they have to be grateful for, like the opportunity to learn and grow from their mistakes.
Build Their Generosity
In addition to gratitude, you should work on developing your child’s generosity and willingness to help others. The saying is true that it is better to give than it is to receive and helping your child experience the wonderful feeling that comes with helping others can make them grow to be less entitled.
Donate Their Old Belongings
To explore their importance of giving back, you might want to have a clear out and look for things of theirs that you can donate to charity. This is a useful exercise as they will need to learn to let go of things they once loved and no longer use and do something self-less.
Taking Part in Community Work
Another means of giving back is community work. You can help your child to develop a willingness to help others through looking for ways that they can give back to the local community and other groups (such as their school) which they are a part of.
Of course, it goes without saying that you have an influence on your child as their parent, as possibly the biggest as they look to you for guidance. By remembering to do the above yourself and demonstrating selflessness, you can help your child to follow your example.