How to Teach Your Kids to Be Grateful

All the parents want to ensure that their children get proper education and find a dream job. However, something more important than formal education is character education. Many parents believe that improvement of mentality and character is something kids should get in school. Without any doubt, school is the place where young adults need to have the opportunity to become good people. However, their development starts at home.

Your children will never become empathetic if you do not teach them to practice gratitude. Despite that, money and popularity are not going to make your kids happy. If they are not grateful, they will never be satisfied with their personal achievements and they will be desperate to reach bigger and bigger goals.

There is no reason to wait for your kid to grow up at all. The ability of a child to understand gratitude starts at an early age. More precisely, if your kid is around 2 years old, the process can begin. However, in case you do not know how to do that, then the list of tips below will make the entire process a lot easier. Because of that, let’s find out the most effective ways to teach your children to be grateful. Let’s go!

You Have to Be a Real-Life Example

The pieces of advice you share with your child will certainly stay somewhere in his or her subconsciousness. Yet, things you do are going to have a much stronger influence on their behavior. That is the reason why you, as a parent, need to model gratitude in every possible situation. Let’s use an example that will describe things even better.

Imagine that you are going for a walk together with your child in a local park. Instead of buying candy or anything else for your child, start talking about the things you see around you. Describe how beautiful it is to sit on a bench in a park when nature is everywhere around you. Simply explain to your child how beautiful it is to have the opportunity to experience such a moment.

There is no reason to keep your emotions whenever you experience something nice. Do that as loud as you can and simply be the role model that your child can follow.

Show Gratefulness to Your Kids

You are probably giving some tasks to your child. For example, they need to clean the mess whenever they play with their toys, or they have to do homework before lunch. Whichever tasks you have for them, a reward system needs to exist. Unfortunately, this is the moment when parents often make a mistake.

People need to understand that reward does not have to be expensive. You can give them as a reward for a good thing they did. On the other hand, the reward does not need to have a physical form at all. For instance, you can allow your child to watch cartoons for one hour or go for a walk in a park after they finish their duties.

This method will help you teach your child that they should work hard to earn something and be grateful whenever they get a reward. These small rewards may not be the favorite thing they would want to get as a present, but they will, over time, learn to be grateful for everything they get.

Show Ungratefulness as a Bad Example

As mentioned, you need to be an example that your children should follow. Yet, it is okay to use some opportunity to show ungratefulness as well. The reason why you should do that is pretty easy to understand.

We know that this will probably sound wrong, but you will need to make your children feel bad. In that way, the children will understand how someone else would feel if they act the same way. When they see how bad it is, they will avoid doing the same thing outside of their home.

Of course, a small talk after this small “show” needs to exist. You need to ask your children how they feel and would they like someone else to feel because of them. We are pretty sure they will manage to remember that lesson quite well!

Teach Them to Be Grateful Through Donating

Kids are happy if they have toys, aren’t they? However, will they be grateful for that? You, as a parent, sometimes need to show examples of kids that do not have the same things as your children. In that way, they might understand how lucky they actually are and start to respect things they have and who they are.

That is the reason why donating can be an outstanding opportunity to raise grateful kids. Let’s say that your child has 10 toys. However, they use only five of them actively. When they see kids that do not have a single toy, they might get the desire to put some of their toys aside and give them to children that need them the most. If they do not show that desire, explain to them that doing that will make those kids happy the same way you made them happy when you bought them those toys.

In case your kids are a bit older, then things are a bit different. You can directly talk with them and remind them of the importance of being grateful for what you have and sharing things with others. Suggest them where they can donate some of the stuff they do not need that much or simply ask them to find the best place for that.

Final Thought

The purpose of this article is pretty simple to understand. Parents need to know that repeating “you need to be grateful for what you have” is not going to be enough. Moms and dads sometimes need to get out of the box and find the most entertaining way to teach their children to be grateful.