How to raise a generous child?
Family
8-10
Generosity is one of the most important principles that we can inculcate in our children. If we had to describe generosity in a simple line, it would be a “selfless act of kindness”
But do you know that generosity is not limited to these selfless acts, it has got many elements which support your happy life too?
According to a study, conducted at the University of Michigan, back in 2003, your generous help can boost your overall mental and physical health along with promoting your longer life. In fact, another research done in the same year at the University of Michigan showed that men who were kind and generous had death rates lower than 2.5 as compared to other men. In other words, we can say that your kind and generous nature will not only have a positive effect on your surroundings but will also support your life span as it releases stress from your shoulder and brings in more peace and prosperity. Thus, generosity has a greater number of benefits for the person who dishes it out.
So now if someone asks you why is generosity important? You have got much more to say than just putting it out as a selfless act. As a parent, you would definitely want your children to experience this goodness of generosity. You should and you must sow the seeds of how important generosity is before you start building your child a castle of worldly pleasures.
You can teach your child to be generous even before he is financially stable. He should learn that one does not need to have a stable income for conducting small acts of generous help.
So the question here is, what can be done to teach children how to be generous?
We are here to guide you through the different aspects of parenthood which will help raise generous children.
How to inculcate generosity in your children
You would have often seen a child reluctant to share his share of chocolate with others. It is completely natural for a child to keep him first. Their world revolves around people doing everything that meets their needs. If you have observed such things, then you must know that children, from a very young age, start learning how to ask for things that they want. And they will obviously get many golden opportunities to master these skills. But as they grew, they need to understand that the world is all about being selfless and not self-centered.
Here comes the role of a parent. Your kid will observe you and learn new things which obviously includes the kind and generous nature.
Parents' role in raising kind and general children. Research conducted at New Harvard University showed that 20% of children believe that their parents put generosity or conducting acts of generous help as their priority. However, if we look at the claims made by parents of how they wish their kids to be is totally contrasting.
96% of parents believe in raising good children, who have a caring nature, and come out to be generous help in the future.
Now, if we look at the remaining 80% of the children, they claim their parents to be more inclined towards materialistic achievements and have never spoken about examples of generosity or how to be generous. Thus, you can see that most of the parents want to send out their kids a message on how to be generous but end up focusing on how to achieve happiness through materialistic things.
Hence, it comes out to be a wake-up call for such parents.
You must have been trying hard to help your kid understand why is generosity important or giving them examples of generosity, but everything goes in vain if your kid doesn’t understand a word of it. Thus, it is an urgent need to make sure that your message of how to be generous is well understood by your kids, and all your examples of generosity feed into their minds forever. We must ensure that your messages are not lost among the web of louder messages which carry the importance of achievements and personal happiness.
How can we do that? Find out in our below section.
Raising generous children – Few tips
1. Raise a desire to share
Raising good children just doesn’t mean that your kids should share their toys and chocolates with their friends, it has got way more than that. When we talk about raising good children, we mean that they should be able to take all their relationship to success level by having a will to share and give. A very important lecture in the class on how to be generous should be on how you can and you must contribute towards the betterment of your society selflessly. Children have this tendency to learn and grasp from their surroundings which makes their real generous nature to change into a self-centered one as they start refusing to share their pieces of joy. Thus, make sure that before your kid, you yourself should have an innate desire of sharing and giving. This will help your kids preserve their instinct of sharing.
Read | Sharing Is caring! Here Are Some Ways to Encourage Your Kids
2. Encouraging the act of empathy
An important tip to keep in mind while raising good children is to how you can encourage empathy in your children. Generosity starts to build-in as soon as you start putting others before yourself. You can try helping your kids to understand others' emotions.
You can do so by asking them questions like, “How would your sister feel if you take away her ice cream?”
Or give them some examples of generosity and show them what others would feel if he tries spreading happiness with his generous nature.
3. Praising your kid’s generous acts
To inculcate generosity naturally in your children, you must praise his good deeds. If you find your kid helping out others or putting out some little generous acts, praise him. This positive recognition will help him to continue putting up the act
4. Setting up examples
As we focused on our earlier sections that children learn from their parents. Thus, set up examples for your kids by indulging in small acts of giving will help him take up the habit naturally. These small acts of kindness can be anything from donating clothes to lending a hand as a volunteer in their school functions
5. Pick up a charity foundation
It is not a compulsion, but choosing a family charity will give your kids a habit of donating their pieces of joy for others’ happiness. On seeing every member of your family supporting a cause, your child will automatically get inclined towards generosity.
