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Two important skills
Children need to learn to focus on individuals and truly listen to them.
They also need to learn to see the bigger picture by putting human experience in context.
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Most parents believe it is a top priority to instill kindness in their children.
However, in one study, nearly 80% of children surveyed said their parents taught them that personal happiness and high achievement were more important than caring for other people.
Children learn to act kindly the same way they learn anything else - with practice.
Give them daily opportunities to practice kindness, such as helping another child.
Children will emulate their parents. Children need to see how their parents show empathy, concern, and sympathy.
Shame, anger, and jealousy can interfere with kindness. Children need to be taught how to address these feelings.
When adults introduce ethical questions, they put issues of injustice in view and help children learn how to treat their various responsibilities to others and themselves.
Few parents are willing to admit that they might be part of the children's moral state.
Parents need to understand what values they are instilling in their children by being aware of their own actions.
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Due to the lockdown, most day-care centres, workplaces and schools are now closed. This has parents grappling with kids using technology at home, consuming media all day.
A few tips that can help make the most of the screen time for kids who are now nested at home:
- Choose high-quality Educational Media.
- Participate in the media.
- Aim for creation, not consumption.
- Don’t praise ability or intelligence: That promotes a fixed mindset. Compliment effort, process and choices.
- Don’t ignore outcome, tie it to effort: You can be happy about success, but attribute it to effort.
- Respond positively to failure: Failure isn’t bad, it’s a tool for improving.
- Don’t just say “Try hard.” Set goals: Blind repetition doesn’t work.
- Practice a Growth mindset in all areas of life: There’s no area where they cannot improve with hard work.
- Share your own Growth mindset efforts: Practice it yourself and share your results.
If you know that a situation might cause you to stress, plan ahead to disengage from that situation so your children will not interpret it as unsafe.
If you feel you are becoming overwhelmed with anxiety in the presence of your child, try and take a break.