Sunday 18 April 2021

EXPLORING GRATITUDE WITH YOUR CHILD

 Fostering gratitude in your child can help them develop a positive outlook on life and resilience in the fact of obstacles and challenges. It can also help your child feel more satisfied with what they do have rather than dwelling on what they don’t have and comparing themselves negatively to others. Read on for some tips from a private boys’ school in London on how you can explore gratitude with your child.




 

Model gratitude

 

Children look to their parents to help them decide how to behave and respond to things, so make sure you’re modelling gratitude yourself in your actions. Talk positively about people and events, and show how grateful you are for the things in your life. This will encourage your child to think and act in the same way. Explain the benefits you receive from people who perform kind acts or help you in some way so that your child understands to be grateful for the things other people do for them. Every day ask your child to tell you something they’re grateful for and make gratitude a regular practice. 

 

Encourage benevolence

 

Encouraging your child to help others whenever they can without expecting anything in return can help them understand gratitude more as they receive it from someone they’ve helped. This will also shape their sense of morality and their values as they grow and mature. Make sure you also show thanks to your child when they do something nice for you - this will make them feel good and encourage them to repeat such actions in the future knowing they made you feel happy. At bedtime, ask them to list three ways they helped someone else during the day; this will keep them feeling good about performing acts of kindness and generosity towards others. 

 

Keep things in perspective

 

Ingratitude can arise from comparing ourselves negatively to others who seem to have more than us. You can counteract this by talking to your child about those who are less fortunate than themso they understand that not everyone has what they have. Point out all the good things in your child’s life that other children don’talways have. This will help them feel more compassionate towards others and more grateful for the privileges they have. 

 

Practising gratitude every day will help your child feel more optimistic about life and less likely to compare themselves negatively to others. 

 

 

 

2 comments:

  1. Some great ways to explore gratitude. I try to practise gratitude with the kids every single day.

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  2. I have just given my daughter a Gratitude book to write down daily reflections. The tween going into teen years are not pretty and sometimes they need a little reminder of what is actually important!

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