DISCOVER
Gratitude Changes Everything Written by Christina Dalton
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ratitude is defined as the quality of being thankful. Many experts tell us that being grateful can give us higher levels of overall happiness in our lives. We all want to level up our happiness in this world and we should be teaching our children this skill as well. As parents, we are very good about teaching and encouraging our children to say thank you to others because it is important to make others feel appreciated and happy and it’s just good manners. But did you know there are huge benefits that come from expressing gratitude to both the giver and receiver? This is the reason we need to be very intentional about teaching our children why it is so important to express and show gratitude to others. Teaching a child to express gratitude can be one of the more challenging parts of parenthood. The
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concept of gratitude is very abstract. When you think about a young child, their worldview can tend to center around themselves. Teaching and modeling gratitude for your child is so important as they grow up. You are setting them up to be less entitled, more empathetic and mentlly healthy. Not to mention less stressed and happier people. Gratitude studies show that there are so many benefits to practicing it everyday. Increased sleep, better moods, fewer health problems, more resilience, increased ability to cope with stressors and overall happiness. Those are some amazing benefits to being grateful, but can you teach this to your children? I think being realistic about it is a great start. Children under the age of 6 may have a harder time expressing gratitude but by the time they are about 10
years old they really have a good grasp of the concept. We want to start modeling this behavior as soon as possible though because even if they are unable to express gratitude all the time they are still taking it in. As they get a little older, they can really understand the concept of empathy which is closely linked to gratitude. When you can really understand another person’s perspective it helps you understand their actions and gives you a clear lens to see what they are doing as kind or generous. I know if you are still with me at this point in the article you are all in. Those benefits are too good to pass up on. So now you’re wondering how to teach gratitude to your children? I’m here to give you some tips for doing just that.
