SPLENDID ME: THE BEST WAY TO TEACH KIDS GRATITUDE

Reading time : 3 min 25 sec

In today’s world, it’s not all that easy. You have all these materialistic things flashing in front of your face on social media, television, and everywhere you go – someone always has the latest gadget.

Our kids see this. They see us with our Phone stapled to our hand, and they are modeling our behavior.

We live in a very materialistic world without gratitude. We live in a world where technology at times seems to take priority over people. Instilling gratitude is now more important than ever! It defines their perspective towards helping people. The art of giving is probably the most humane thing we can ask our little toddler to do.

Parenting is not an easy thing. Children’s minds are like water. It can change any shape, just needed proper guidance.

HOW TO TEACH KIDS GRATITUDE

The most creative and inspiring idea that came across while reading one article was a very simple tip to raise grateful children.

It all starts with hard work, generosity, and kindness. We could name it as Doing Good Day or Gratitude day

First, the kids had to do chores to earn money to give away! It's a mind-blowing tip. The kids would vacuum, sweep, take out the garbage or any simple helping task, to earn money to serve others. (That’s right, their allowance will be used to serve others, not to self-serve). After they earned their money, they would spend the remainder of the day serving their society.

Time to start earning and sharing!

HOW TO PLAN YOUR OWN GRATITUDE DAY

Choose one day per month.

Have your kids do chores to earn money beforehand or the actual day.

Have your kids use their money to buy ingredients to make goods for others or use the money to donate to others in need.

Talk about the experience. What happened, how did you all feel afterward, and how can you serve others better next time? How can you persevere and push forward?

BEST PART?

When this becomes routine you will be surprised to see your children excited to help others. By doing simple chores to earn money they will acknowledge the value of money.

I started this 2 years back on my son's birthday when we bought gifts for less privileged children. Then we practiced this frequently by sharing toys, clothes, etc. This is something many of us do especially on occasions like birthday or so. But this practice needs to be organized to get long term results. As it is easy to share what we don't use. But it takes effort to earn something and just give it away.

This simple act of giving is a very powerful tool for developing gratitude in children. And to those of you who are unaware of the power of gratitude must understand gratitude as the magnetic power which attracts all the good in one's life if practiced regularly. Inculcating gratitude in our children at a young age would be the greatest gift we as parents could transfer to our generations.

Its a great skill developer and personality booster when little kids develop the mindset that they should work, earn, and give to others.

The most interesting part was when we practiced it on regular basis I could see his eagerness to work. In fact, he understood the value of little things. He started understanding that we as parents have to work really hard as we work daily to give it to our kids. He felt great and it boosted his self-esteem also.

All it took was one day per month to teach gratitude.

We live in a materialistic world, where we walk into people right in front of us because we are too consumed with the latest update on our Phone. Sometimes we have to remember to swipe to left, power down, and look to our community members in need and offer to help. We need to learn to savor the moment with each other.

In this time of crisis of COVID-19, it becomes more relevant to live as a community and take responsibility. Lack of gratitude and selflessness is the reason why only one Sonu Sood, came forward for migrants help in this country of 1380 million or 138 crores. Why the only a handful of NGOs are working for society. Think about it. As parents, it's our utmost responsibility to nurture our children as responsible citizens.

Talk of any problem with our society: Robbery, Rape, Murder, Mob lynching, Corporate politics, Politics in general, Corruption in every sphere etc.etc.

Can a person with gratitude and serving nature get involved in any of the above practices ?? The answer is NO. THINK OVER IT. These malpractices bud out of dissatisfaction, jealousy, ungratefulness, low self-esteem, and incapacity to handle hard circumstances.