Raising children who are kind humans is one of my main objectives as a parent. Teaching your child to be kind is important, but modeling kindness is imperative. How as a parent can one demonstrate kindness to others in the presence of one’s children. I would love to share my thoughts and ideas in the hopes of inspiring parents to spread kindness through actions and words.
How can a Parent Model Kindness?
It really is quite simple. Adults model kindness through their actions. To model kindness, adults need to actively demonstrate kind behaviors in their daily interactions, such as opening a door for someone, offering genuine compliments, helping others in need, being polite, smiling, saying thank you, greeting someone with a warm “hello,” and just trying to be generally helpful.
Some Key Aspects of Modeling Kindness:
–Be intentional: actively look for opportunities to be kind, even in the smallest of ways.
–Verbalize your actions: Explain to your children why you’re doing something kind, so they can understand the reasoning behind it.
–Show empathy: Try to teach your children to understand another’s perspective and demonstrate compassion toward others regardless of their demographics or other identifying features.
–Practice good manners
–Acknowledge when others are being kind.
Modeling Kindness in the Home & Community:
Opportunities in the home to model kindness:
-Expressing gratitude when your partner is helpful.
-Offering to make your partner a cup of coffee or pour them a glass of water.
-Helping a family member with a chore.
-Apologizing and asking for forgiveness
-Help child write a letter to a friend/grandparent.
Opportunities in the community to model kindness:
-Helping a neighbor with a task.
-Giving food/drink or some other type of assistance to a person of need.
-Volunteering one’s time/donating to a worthy cause.
-Giving someone a sincere compliment.
-Pick flowers for someone.
-Offer to walk someone’s dog.
-Say “Hi” to someone new.
-Clean up after someone else.
-Let someone in line ahead of you.
-Pay it forward at a drive through.
In Conclusion
In conclusion, if you’re a parent, you know that children are ALWAYS watching. Because we’re human, there obviously will be times when we slip up, for example, when we lose our temper with someone. However, when these slipups occur, make it a teaching moment. Explain to your child that Mommy/Daddy should have reacted differently and apologize to the other party if able.
Take every opportunity as a parent to model kindness because our children will be the future generation, and I for one, believe the world could be a more welcoming, bright place if more kindness enveloped us all.