In today’s fast-paced world, parenting is a challenging task. As a result, most children lack essential life skills such as compassion.
The hectic nature of modern lives means that parents spend limited time with their children. In addition, TV and the internet ensure that there is minimal interaction between you and your kids. This means that kids rarely learn positive traits such as compassion from their parents and are instead, influenced by society.
Compassion is an invaluable trait that any parent would want their child to have. Indeed, if the majority of people were compassionate, the world would certainly be a better place. While it may sound difficult, it is considerably easy to teach compassion to your kids. The following are some of the ways of making your child compassionate.
Be Compassionate
It might be cliché, but action certainly speaks louder than words. This means that children are more likely to emulate your behavior than they heed to your words. If you are narcissistic and full of ego, your kids will surely follow that path. Likewise, if you treat those around you with kindness and compassion, your children will acquire this trait.
Using Cards/Wristbands/Bracelets
Nowadays, causes use wristbands, bracelets and other wearables to spread awareness about themselves. For instance, a wristband might be designed in such a way that it constantly reminds your child to be compassionate. Also, you can get creative and make a bracelet to which your child adds beads after performing a kind act.
Alternatively, you can give your kid a compassion card. An instance where this approach has proven successful is the compassion project. This unique card outlines the steps an individual should follow to develop compassion as one of their key traits. It is available in over 33 languages, including Chinese, Farsi, Urdu, Russian, and Swedish and many more.
Use TV and the Internet
Much of the moral decay in contemporary society is blamed on bad influence stemming from TV and the internet, particularly social media platforms. It increasingly seems that these avenues are gratifying sex, violence, and eccentricity. However, you can still point out incidences of compassion to your children. Also, you can tell your children how compassion can help prevent negative incidences.
Acknowledge Compassionate Acts
Another way of teaching compassion to your children is by recognizing their kind acts. When you spot your kid being sympathetic, do not hesitate to tell them how proud you are. Profound compliments are known to stimulate the body much more than material rewards. This ‘feel good’ aftereffect of being complimented for being kind also teaches your children how others feel when you show compassion to them.
Encourage Etiquette
People who observe etiquette in their conduct are more likely to be compassionate than those who don’t. For this reason, you should encourage your children to regularly use words such as ‘please’, ‘thanks’, ‘sorry’, and other similar terms. After realizing how much the simple terms mean to people, they are likely to become more compassionate.
Moreover, you should discourage negative behavior such as using derogatory names and abusive language. In this regard, you should highlight that disagreements and arguments are normal, but they shouldn’t always involve obscene words.
Learn about Other People
Traveling around is the best way to gain exposure about how other people live. Where traveling is impossible due to various circumstances, you can use books, movies and other forms of art to learn about the different cultures of this world. Most probably, your child will see the impoverished conditions that some people live in on other parts of the globe. It is during such a time that you should tell them how compassionate acts such as donation may improve the living conditions of such destitute.
Bible Lessons
The Bible is filled with stories that teach us about compassion and kindness. When you teach bible lessons to your kids, you can emphasize how the characters in the stories acted lovingly and compassionately, and how those actions affected their lives and the lives of others around them. This can help your young ones to understand why it is important to be compassionate and kind.
Teach Empathy
Children have the tendency of focusing on their feelings so much that they neglect the feelings of others. To eliminate this behavior, it is advisable to tell your child how their actions affect others. The best way to do this is by putting them in the shoes of others, allowing them to experience the person’s perspective. Being familiar with others’ point of view makes it more likely for your child to help such people when they facing challenges.
Acquire a Pet
Obviously, taking care of a pet is a demanding task that will consume lots of your time. It is equally as likely to use a significant amount of resources. The advantage, however, is that it teaches compassion to your children. By taking care of a domestic animal, your kids will develop traits such as responsibility, empathy, compassion and unconditional love for living organisms. These values can easily be extended to human beings.
Demonstrate Tolerance
There is absolutely no room for discrimination if you want to foster compassion within your family. This means that you should be tolerant of all kinds of people, regardless of their background. Your children should also observe these standards. It is impossible to be compassionate if you only associate with people from a certain category.
Conclusion
A busy day-to-day schedule should not be an excuse for failing to pass on a trait as useful as compassion to your children. This means that you should make the most of the little time you get to interact with your younger ones.
All that said, the importance of compassion cannot be overlooked. In fact, a substantial number of people who appear to be in need of material items are actually emotionally deprived. With just a little bit of compassion, the lives of such persons would improve greatly.
The responsibility rests upon your shoulders. Make your kids compassionate for the betterment of the world’s future!