How To Raise Kinder Kids

Do you wonder how you can raise kinder kids? As parents, we want our kids to be nice and kind, but how do we instill these qualities in them?

Most families and kids have busy schedules, and the days and weeks can fly by before we know it. So, if you want your kids to be kinder, you have to intentionally raise their awareness of kindness and the impact of being both kind and unkind.

Consider focusing on kindness as a family. You might do this by having a family kindness challenge week, during which you work on doing at least one kind thing daily. Then, at dinner or before bed, everyone could share what they did that day.  

You might also consider setting an example by doing a random act of kindness yourself, such as paying for the coffee for the person behind you when you have your child in the car with you or something similar. Let your child know what you’re doing, and ask them how they think the person might feel having someone else do something kind for them and if they think it might make that person more likely to do something kind for others, too.

Teach your kids that kindness has a ripple effect. Once, buying coffee for the next person in line made national news because it lasted for 12 hours!  

Empathy is a skill kids have to develop, and you can help by raising your child’s awareness of the impact of being both kind and unkind.  You do this by having conversations with your kids about how they think other people feel when someone is kind to them and how they feel when someone is mean.  

Look for examples in books, movies, or real life as you observe them, and see if you can find examples you can point out of people being both kind and unkind.

Please note: Just pointing them out will not have the biggest impact. For things to really hit home, you should ask your child how they think the characters feel when they are kind or unkind to someone else and how the other people feel when the character is kind or mean to them.

By asking questions about how the characters feel, children start to understand the connection between their actions and how they affect other people.

Many times, kids are mean or pick on others to help with their own self-esteem and make themselves feel better.  Usually, when they’re being mean or making fun of others, it reflects their own insecurities.  Often, it’s one child, but others follow along because they’re afraid to speak up or find it funny.  But if we get our kids to think about how it feels when someone is unkind to them, maybe they’ll be the ones to speak up.

Knowing this, I encourage you to consider that we can build a kinder world if we help our kids realize at a young age that lifting someone else up feels so much better than tearing someone down.

February 17th is Random Acts of Kindness Day.  I encourage you to focus on kindness as a family this week and discuss the results with your kids!

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