HEALTHY KIDS
HOW
TO TEACH
YOUR KIDS
GRATITUDE
THIS IS A GREAT WEEK TO THINK ABOUT HOW TO INSTILL GRATITUDE IN YOUR CHILD.
GRATITUDE IS KEY IF YOU WANT YOUR CHILD TO LIVE A LIFE OF CONTENTMENT THAT’S
FOCUSED MORE ON OTHERS THAN HIMSELF. IT MIGHT BE HARD TO IMAGINE YOUR
13-YEAR-OLD WHO COMPLAINS ABOUT EVERY LITTLE THING ACTUALLY LIVING A LIFE OF
GRATITUDE AND SERVICE, BUT IT’S NOT IMPOSSIBLE.
Trust me, no matter how stubborn or
self-centered your child is right now, she
can learn to be grateful.
This week on my Parenting Great Kids
podcast, I talk about the importance
of teaching gratitude and service to
your children, and specifically about
my recent trip to Bolivia with one of my
favorite organizations, Food For The
Hungry.
When it comes to instilling a life-long
sense of gratitude in your child, keep the
following in mind.
As a parent,
you’ve probably
1. Gratitude
doesn’t come noticed this.
Gratitude is not
naturally to
a child’s natural
our kids.
tendency. But
this isn’t your
child’s fault; it’s simply how children
develop. We are wired to be egocentric,
especially when we’re young. To children,
it feels like the world revolves around
them. Their needs are what they think
of, not others’, so they don’t think to be
grateful for what they have.
This is important to know about your
child because it means you’re going to
have to make an intentional effort to
teach your kids to be grateful. It’s not
going to just happen. Parents who want
to teach gratitude TO their kids must first
model gratitude FOR their kids.
8 / HEALTHY RGV
Behind every grateful
child is a grateful parent
who showed them what
gratitude looks like.
Discontent, ungrateful parents often raise
discontent, ungrateful children. Behind
every grateful child is a grateful parent
who showed them what gratitude looked
like and why it was important.
Instilling
2. Experience gratitude is done
less by words
speaks
than actions
louder than
and experience.
words.
We can talk
about different
circumstances like hunger and need, but
unless kids experience and are immersed
in these realities, they often just don’t
get it.
Expose your children to those who lack
food or are sick or homeless. They’ve
heard about all of these things, but when
they actually walk among children who
have no food or someone who doesn’t
have a bed to sleep on at night, they will
experience life on a different level. Once
they begin to see how much they have in
contrast to how much this other person
doesn’t have, the opportunity is there to
talk about gratitude and how we should
respond.
Gratitude takes shape when we
experience and understand that there
are other people who are in need. Your
job, parents, is to expose your kids to
that need in a way that will introduce
empathy and instill gratitude in your
child.
A single experience
will eventually
3.
Consistency wear off, but if
you consistently
is key.
give your child
opportunities to
serve others who are less fortunate than
he is, gratitude will become a part of his
character. The best way to do this is to
involve your kids in an ongoing service
project. Tutoring, soup kitchens, building
a Habitat for Humanity house, grocery
shopping for an elderly neighbor, visiting
kids in the hospital—there is always work
to be done for other people in positions
of need.
It’s not only kids who need
to be taught gratitude, we
often need it too.
Find out what your child enjoys the most
and make it a weekly or monthly habit for
your family.
Something happens to us as we teach
our kids to be more grateful, we begin to
be more grateful. It’s not only kids who
need to be taught gratitude, we often
need it too. Use this season to teach an
invaluable lesson to your children, and
yourself.
By Meg Meeker, MD