10 Ways to Encourage Kindness in Kids

Children are born as the most innocent selfless individuals. Human baby needs utmost attention from parents to learn the ways of life, unlike animals, birds, and sea creatures.

It depends on the parents to put in good or bad into their minds. They will shape up to be the individuals on the basis of your teachings.

How can you be an example to your kid to show you help others?

Help your neighbors in different ways when they are in need
Donate materials that are in excess or are of no use
Share lunchbox with a friend who has nothing to eat
Greet people with positive lines like ‘Have a Great Day!’
Offer to back your own groceries when the cashier is busy with work.

You need to raise mentally strong kids who can stand for themselves and also for others. Your child will be appreciated for his helpful behavior and ethical proficiency. But how can you build such a character who would readily help others and find happiness in it?

Ways to Encourage Kindness in Kids

Charity begins at Home

Your children should learn the importance of helping others from day to day activities. You should get them involved in small tasks like helping you on cleaning the kitchen or getting you a glass of water, washing their own dirty plates.

These small activities can make them understand the value of help and gratitude. Motivate them and also express your anticipation.

Repeat an activity to reinforce

Let your child get involved in an activity like taking an elderly neighbor for a walk or saving some pocket money to buy a pencil or eraser for a child who cannot afford it, or even help you by leading hand in cleaning the house.

These activities should be repeated once in a while to inculcate the habit of helping. As your child does it repeatedly, he will start liking it.

Put others before self

Parents should focus on raising self-reliant children, who can be responsible individuals in the future. Avoid pampering kids as it leads to self-centered behavior where the child will put himself above everyone else.

It is important to peek into the lives of less deserved children and see the sacrifice they make to fulfill their goals. Children should learn to realize these problems of others at a greater and higher importance than one’s own comfort.

Engage in the community help activities

As we live in a society, it is important to be an active participant in encouraging the betterment of the community. Your child should learn the positive image building in a community by participating in small and big activities like planting trees, cleaning the locality, donating old books and toys to lesser privileged ones, etc.

Basically, you need to encourage your child to be a part of such community activities to achieve the greater goal of making him a helpful individual in the future.

Be a Role Model

Your child is your greatest mimic, in fact, a replica of how you behave. You need to be helping others and behaving well if you expect your child to do the same in the future.

When your child is involved in any good activity, praise his work, and express appreciation to boost his energy. You need to be a role model who is adored by your child and would love to follow your footsteps in the future.

Teach love for the Earth

You should raise a child who is conscious of the surrounding. Teach your child that it is very bad to litter or even misuse public places. A park is meant to be used by everyone, so that should be maintained well by everyone.

Your child can pick up a chips packet that’s lying on the ground and throw it in the dustbin. Make sure you clean your own mess while using public places and teach the same to your child.

Teach to say Thanks

These days children grow up with all the modern essentials and are smart kids from a young age. But one thing that they lack is courtesy, appreciating what they have and being thankful for even the smallest gestures. You have to teach your child to be grateful, thankful, and affectionate even towards strangers.

Give an instance of how a pizza delivery guy would love to hear ‘Thank You’, you can help a neighbor to carry baggage when your hands are free. How do you feel when you get a ‘thanks’ in return? Your child should value the word and its significance.

Teach empathy more than sympathy

Children should not stand on the top and feel sorry for the less privileged ones. Empathy is the quality to understand somebody else’s feelings. They should appreciate all the good things they have in life and be considerate towards others who are in need. Helping nature with compassion develops with understanding the need of others.

You should help a friend who is ill or share your baked cookies with a neighbor, drop a friend’s kid to school, or go to visit a relative in the hospital. These small gestures are picked by your child and they will learn the art of humanity and humility.

Don’t put your child in competition with a cousin or a friend while doing a noble work

Children should be encouraged to do noble work by coming in together as a team. If you put it as competition, then they will focus on the winning part rather than the good cause. Praise for ream effort and it’s important especially when it involves betterment of all.

Don’t let rudeness pass

You may come across a nasty cashier, or even an arguing security guard, possibly also a weird stranger who is not very well behaved. How do you react to this is a pointer to how your child would learn to behave!

You need to react calmly and just discuss with your child that these people must have meant for having a bad day or something. The outcome is that your child gets to know that when someone is nasty to you, you don’t have to be mean in response.

Here are Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about to encourage Kindness in Child

How to teach my child to be compassionate at school?

You can send some extra supply of school materials like pencil, eraser, etc when your child goes to school with a note that anyone in need can use it. Allow your child to borrow and express gratitude for the help.

Which activity in a parent discourages a child to be kind and helpful?

Your child is a natural-born helpful person but you need to value his worth. If you start redoing all the things that he may have done for you, it’s discouraging and demotivating. He will never try to help you again. Parenting mistake which ruins growth is disrespecting your child’s effort.

How can you teach your child to be helpful from a young age?

Children should learn to read facial expressions and emotions like happiness, sadness, anger, love, thankfulness, and others. They will formulate a good idea to give a reaction that can be comforting.

Verdict

The smallest hands can make the greatest difference in a person’s life. Coach your child to respect everyone irrespective of gender, caste, age, religion, or class. Treat your child with respect and they will give that back in abundance.