Knowing How To Raise Grateful Children
When it comes to children, teaching those necessary morals and values go a long way in their future. During this thankful time of year, learning about having sense of gratitude in different ways is a important for kids, at the end of the day.
At a young age, good manners and positive attitude can be acknowledged through the importance of gratitude and having an attitude of gratitude. Sometimes it can be simple things that grateful kids do on a daily basis that matter.
Knowing how to raise grateful children isn’t as easy as it sounds. Kids can be taught how to be thankful and grateful for what they have and what they’re given, but it doesn’t mean that it will go that way all the time. It has to be something that they learn in a positive way and see the positive outcomes as well.
Some will think they come from an entitled world where everything is given to them without any hardship, and it may. On the other hand, there are children who must work their way to earn the birthday gifts or the birthday party.
Gratitude Habit
Gratitude journal can be part of an everyday life by creating a list of the things that you are grateful for. Sometimes teaching our kids to express their feelings not only verbally but in a written form can be a great way to own sense of entitlement to their feelings of gratitude.
Teaching your children to write down their feelings also helps them go a little deeper than just saying it. It can increase their thought process and share a much more meaningful skill.
Gratitude jar is a powerful way to use slips of paper to show children’s gratitude and gives so much value and personal feel to it. Writing down something you are grateful for or that you might have done something great for someone else in a jar creates a positive mood.
Picture yourself seeing the increments of the paper increases in the jar. You’ll be amazed at the beauty of the heart melting moments. Capturing those each moments on a paper and going back and even reading them can be so amazing.
Holiday gifts is one of the best part of the holiday season, especially for young children because it’s a fun way of sharing good times with family member. Whether you are going shopping for your loved ones or wrapping the already bought gifts, the holiday spirit just brings so much love and thankful hearts.
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Service projects can teach children appreciation. Setting events like a canned food drive or toy drives for their peers are are an example of a service project that results from someone sharing their gratitude with another.
Helping hand – One of the best way for younger kids or older kids to to be grateful people is to give a helping hand to anyone having tough times or a hard time with so much stuff going on, especially during the holidays. Even a simple thing as opening a door for someone can go a long way.
Random act of kindness on an any given day shows a good habit of a thankful child because there is no perfect time for it. It can be done on a daily basis which shows a good behavior in different ways. Sometimes it can be more helpful on bad days because it makes you look at the bright side of things. You can how such a small act of kindness can brighten up someone’s worst days.
Not much time or attention might be given as children with this matter, but having a good physical health is also something to be great for small children. It’s always a good news to be healthy and know your healthy boundaries, because not everyone is blessed with good health. Being able to wake up every morning and do the things that you want to do without much struggle is a blessing in disguise.
Benefits of Gratitude Habit
Grateful heart is gratitude that comes from the heart. You can show gratitude in many different ways, but a grateful heart can come so deep. How to raise grateful children will reflect on how much of their heart values and acknowledges the great things that happen to them or by them.
Thankful kids are those who appreciate things parents provide for them whether it’s small or big. There’s no comparison being made and they learn to value the important thing and not just the material things.
Grateful parents know how to raise grateful children because they themselves know how to be thankful. When you know how to humble and thankful for things in your life, you want to teach those same gratitude to your children as well. Parents also show their gratitude through the value of hard work.
Seeing the silver lining in good things or bad things will reflect on your own life and the way you view things around you. When you show your kid to appreciate the things that they are provided with, they will see through everything with a positive view, even when they might be in a bad mood.
Positive outcomes are derived from a positive example. When a good behavior is modeled either from the parents of the children it can be shown in a positive result. My daughter for example has been working on her multiplications.
At the very beginning, she was very scared of how she would learn this complicated math concept. But when she started memorizing each multiples in order and saw a progress, she was able to master it faster than she expected.
Sometimes a great reward of showing gratitude can be in using your own money to get a new toy or earning extra screen time. My children earn extra screen time for doing extra chores or earn some money for folding their own laundry and putting them away.
It can be a cash reward or a credit towards an item of choice (value must be earned) at Target. Sometimes we take a trip to the grocery store for some treat like ice cream if they’ve shown an act of gratitude.
Model Gratitude
Daily habit of doing positive things on a regular basis is a simple way to create grateful kids. It’s a great way to start with little things at a young age. An example of a daily habit can be using words of gratitude. Saying thank you in situations that someone or something has been done to you or for you in a positive act is a great way to start.
Household chores are something everyone member in the house can do, even really young children. Model gratitude through daily chores. For example, if a mom cooks dinner, the rest of the family can show gratitude of her cooking by doing dishes or help cleaning after.
Dinner table is a great way for family meeting to be held. While eating together, you can express gratitude, talk about your day, and discuss things as a family. Teaching the kids to help set up the tables while the parent(s) are cooking is a good way to show appreciation in both ways.
Pay it forward has been something commonly seen these day, especially in a drive-thru setting. Often in a Starbucks or a fast food drive-thru, someone ends up paying for the car behind them, hoping that they too will share that kind gesture to others as well.
This gesture can teach our kids that if you have capable of sharing something with someone else, do it. It doesn’t have to always be a monetary gesture. It can be as simple as sharing something you have extra of or or something that someone else needs that you might not is a good start too.
No matter what happens, there is always something to be thankful for, in all situations. Instead of looking at only the negative things when something goes wrong, think of the positive aspect of it.
Often when things go bad, we like to blame something or someone but there could be a reason for that situation. Sometimes it’s a lesson to teach your children or yourself to slow down and see the road your taking.
How to raise grateful children will be a combination of the parent(s) and guardians as well as the children involved. With a rightful heart and a rightful mind, having a child know how to show gratitude can be achieved.
I love your article about raising grateful children! I like the gratitude journal idea, and I also agree that modeling gratitude helps teach your children to be thankful.