Help unlock your child’s best self with a few tried-and-true strategies.
Parents want their kids to achieve their goals and find happiness, but Harvard researchers believe that doesn’t have to come at the expense of kindness and empathy….
Here are six practical tips:
- 1) Hang out with your kids.
- 2) If it matters, say it out loud.
- 3) Show your child how to “work it out.”
- 4) Make helpfulness and gratitude routine.
- 5) Check your child’s destructive emotions.
- 6) Show your kids the bigger picture.
…”Almost all children empathize with and care about a small circle of families and friends,” say the researchers. The trick is getting them to care about people who are socially, culturally, and even geographically outside their circles.
You can do this by coaching them to be good listeners, by encouraging them to put themselves in other people’s shoes, and by practicing empathy using teachable moments in news and entertainment.
