publicationmedia-verification" content="e1322166-9f17-48d2-91a8-6ef3e24e5faa

A Guide To Helping Your Kids Cultivate Thoughtfulness and Empathy

A Guide To Helping Your Kids Cultivate Thoughtfulness and Empathy

Disclosure – this is a collaborative post.

Having kids can be a great joy, but it’s no secret that most kids think the entire world revolves around them. This isn’t a character flaw – all kids think they are the centre of the universe until they are shown otherwise. If you want to help your kids cultivate thoughtfulness and empathy, this guide will help you. Take a look and see what you can do:

Remember You Are Always Setting An Example For Them

First, remember that no matter what you do, you’re always setting an example for your kids. You must think about others feelings, and show yourself to be a thoughtful and empathetic person. Be kind to people, talk about their feelings, and send flowers to people you care about. Ask your kids to get involved in coming up with ideas for nice things to do for people. 

Talk About Feelings

Talking about feelings helps to open up conversations and give them the language needed to express how they feel. When they are having a bad time, say things like ‘I see you’re really frustrated’ – show them that you see how they feel. This doesn’t mean you need to give in to them all the time, but showing them that you can understand them will make a big difference. 

Before they can empathize with the feelings of others, they need to identify their own. They will only be able to do that if you help them. Teach feelings just like you’d teach colours or numbers!

 When your kids have a good sense of their own emotions, you can look at situations together and ask them how they think the situation made other people feel. 

Use Media To Your Advantage

You can use media to your advantage. For example, you can discuss the situations that you watch and read about, how characters might be feeling, and possible scenarios in which things could have been handled better. You can’t stop them from watching TV, so use it to your advantage. 

Acknowledge Acts of Kindness 

Don’t just praise your kids when they do well on a test or in a game. Praise them for having a caring mindset! If they help a friend or do something nice without being told, make sure you tell them that you noticed it. 

Expose Them To Different Cultures 

You can expose your kids to different cultures by visiting museums, volunteering, and watching a variety of shows and reading a variety of books. You can also travel. Make sure you eliminate jokes about race and culture when you’re at home, too. 

Own Up To Your Mistakes

They are paying attention whether you know it or not, so own up to your own mistakes. Let them know when you haven’t behaved the best and talk about how you should have acted. This could work when you maybe become a bit snappy with somebody in a shop or restaurant, for example. 

Make Kindness A Family Activity 

Volunteer together, and do other things to make kindness a family activity! 

Disclosure – this is a collaborative post.

Share: