Teach kindness and compassion to your kids:
Many a times I have seen children crying when they want their friends’ toys to play with and the friend is not ready to share and play. After this, parents come interfering in their game and try to solve their problem, but if the child is too arrogant, he/she would not listen to their parents to share the toy with the other kid. We parents are really worried about their such behaviour as we want them to behave socially. How can we teach them empathy and kindness? These are the questions which hover over our mind during such a situation.
Behaviour is something which we can teach them better while acting on it or implementing values in our own life. It is always said parents are the first teacher of a kid. So whatever they learn as a child comes from the parents. Try to be kind and compassionate to others, which would be a visual lesson for your kids. Also, at the same time mention to them how you helped the other person and use the word kind and compassion while making them understand the situation. Kids are good imitators, they imitate you and learn from you, the values which you follow.
Read them stories based on morals which can entertain them as well as impart values in them. Let them understand how important being kind and compassionate is. Explain the story with real-life examples where the understanding would be more clear.
One day while watching television with my son, we came across an advertisement. The advertisement was about Brooke Bond Red Label Tea. What can we expect from a company like Brooke Bond when they want to advertise their product? They can show that their tea is much tastier than others, or it refreshes you from a tiresome day. But this advertisement was not like that, it was different. The advertisement first shows that it is raining heavily, and people are stuck in a traffic jam. One girl was returning home from her school with her grandmother, and they were stuck in the traffic jam when somebody knocked on their window. The grandmother got irritated saying why these people keep on begging money. She opened the window, and she was offered a glass of hot tea by that person. She was happy with the tea as it was raining, and tired being stuck in a traffic jam. When she wanted to give the price for the tea, she was told there was no need for money, it was free of cost.
This advertisement is really heart-touching. I told my son, “can you see how they are helping people while they are stuck in the jam? It’s all about kindness, empathy and compassion. We should be kind to others and understand their pain and never refrain from helping anybody.” My son understood and then started asking many questions. But what I know is in every situation I try to induce values in him.
How we treat our child is also important here. We should give lots of love and care to our child and also respect them. This is when they learn to love and care, and they will also respect you. If they respect you, they will respect others too. Shouting, nagging behind them does not take us anywhere. Let them learn their responsibilities and do it accordingly. When we show positive behaviour, they will learn to behave positively.
Being kind and compassionate is one thing, but we should let them know it’s not only about understanding and helping others, it’s about making others happy, bringing a little change in this world of sorrows and attracting as many blessings as we can.
