4 ways to help cultivate kindness in our kids

Source - Be Well Buzz

​This week is the #StandTogether National Kindness Week.

The challenge is an interactive WhatsApp chat bot developed by R.AGE and U-Report Malaysia. Users will receive Kindness Missions from the chat bot every day throughout the National Kindness Week, which they must complete within 24 hours.

At A Brilliant Child Care Centre, we too emphasize on fostering kindness in our kids, whether it’s helping a friend out, engaging in healthy competition or how to respond politely to insults, compliments or teasing.

How are you, as parents helping your kids to show kindness?
 
1. Are you as a parent treating everyone else right?
You are your kids’ role models. They mirror your moves because they don’t know any better. Your everyday frustrations while driving or when you feel your significant other isn’t helping in lessening the load of your daily chores; your child sees that and presumes it as a typical behavior.

But unlike them, you as a parent can quickly bite your tongue and pull yourself together. You are human, after all. It’s alright to let your kids know adults are no less than perfect. You slip up but make up for it at the end of the day.
 
2. Do your kids know how to distinguish theirs or other peers' emotions?
Children often do not know the words to describe their feelings and how to control them in the first place. Let alone another person’s feelings.

Show your kids how to identify and express emotions. Use real-life examples and give names to the many emotions as you and your kids go through the day. Teach them the proper way to react to these emotions, as well as when they encounter their friends and family displaying those emotions to show they care.
 

3. Do you encourage your kid to help others and expect nothing in return?
Kindness is free. Simple acts like cheering your friend up with a smile and giving good thoughts can be taught at home, or having your child watch you do it overtime.

Do it out of the goodness of your heart and see how it pays forward.
 

4. Are you treating yourself kindly in the first place?
We often spread positivity to make one’s day, but have we stopped being kind to ourselves? As parents, you often find yourself at the brunt end when the kids misbehave. But we want to reiterate again that you are only human. Your child is only human.

Take a breather and know you’ve done your best, and you’re not going to be a perfect parent. Rant in parent groups and forums, read articles and self-help books and somewhere along the way, you’ll come up with new ways on how to cope being a parent and not give yourself a hard time. In fact, give yourself a pat on the back whenever you’ve accomplished something in life or parenting, no matter how small it is.

The same it is for kids. They’re frustrated enough that they can’t do bigger kids’ stuff, they’re struggling with emotions that they don’t even know they have and they have a hard time distinguishing what is right and wrong.

How then, do we teach kids to self-love?

It’s important to carefully use words to show you understand what your kids are going through. They will feel angry when something doesn’t go their way, and as parents, you can encourage them to stop, regain their composure and work out other ways to get it done. Help your kids find out what activities make them happy, and you’ll be amazed to discover their strengths and what they can do. Accept them for who they are. As parents, it’s your responsibility to guide and nurture them in the right direction, but know you’re not in control of what they choose to be happy with.
 
We hope you’ve learnt a thing or two on how to cultivate kindness in yourselves and your kids. Remember, kindness and positive change begins with you.
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Now, go out there with your kids and perform random acts of kindness and spread the love!