Teaching Empathy in Children
What a child needs from their parents is empathy, and acknowledgment of his or her feelings. Empathy is the ability to share experiences, needs, and desires between individuals, and a child who learns empathy truly cares about the way his or her actions impact others. Learning empathy provides the emotional bridge to maintain close and healthy relationships. The most important way to teach children empathy is to have them experience empathy from their parents, and that starts with how parents deal with their children’s emotions. Feelings of anger, sadness, and fear often start with a problem, and as parents our first instinct is often to fix the problem. For example, for a child being teased, breaking a toy, or running from a spider, a parent might try to rescue a child from the problem, such as squashing the spider or buying a new toy. However, this takes away a chance for the child to learn independence and problem solving. Another mistake is to convince the child that he or she is wrong: “Spiders aren’t scary.” or “If they tease you, they must be jealous.” The worst thing you can do is to tell the child to ignore his or her feelings by saying things like “You’re too sensitive” or “It’s no big deal.”
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