Sharing & Caring: How to Teach Children These Two Important Traits?

posted on Jan 25, 2023

“If you want to lift yourself up, lift someone else up.” – Booker T. Washington

Parents have a natural concern for their children’s education, and that’s why they remain actively involved in their school activities and homework. However, we at Gurukul The School, one of the top schools in Ghaziabad, firmly believe that in today’s day and age, just as much as academic proficiency is vital for kids, it is equally necessary for them to receive character education as well.

Why we are emphasizing the need for character education today is because a study by Harvard University under a project revealed that 80 percent of kids surveyed valued achievements over caring for others. And why so? Children stated that their good grades were more appreciated than their caring and sharing gestures in society.

We at Gurukul The School firmly believe that as parents and mentors, it is our responsibility to raise empathetic children who are not just empathetic and responsible but also have a high emotional quotient.

So here, in this article today, we would like to share with you some easy and effective ways to infuse the traits of sharing and caring in children. These two traits will naturally help bring other positive qualities like humility, team spirit, better relationships, empathy, cooperation, and more in your children.

Expose children to a social environment where sharing can be offered: Supermarkets and shops, playgrounds and parks, crossing roads, traveling in public transport, etc., are some of the places where you may show your kids how even small things like sharing a product, offering help and care by passing a basket, offering your seat to someone needy, or letting someone pass the line as a helping gesture, may bring a smile to other person’s face. These may seem very insignificant gestures, but they can be of immense help to someone most of the time. This will sensitize your child about the importance of sharing and caring.
Respect your child’s learning: Who didn’t make mistakes as a child? Despite what we want our kids to learn, we will witness them making small mistakes and big blunders. When you, as parents, acknowledge their mistakes and respect them for their effort, they grow more open and eager to learn what you have to offer. Appreciating their good actions and making them feel respected makes children learn faster and act responsibly.
 

Create situations for them to experience: Making children realize that whatever they are getting is because the parents and other family members are sharing with them is a good way to make them believe in the power and necessity of sharing and caring. Let’s say you are eating something and the child wants to eat that, create a conversation that it was important for you, and yet you are okay to share or give it to them. So, next time if someone asks them what they would like to do? This naturally makes them see how others are showing love and care to them by sharing with them.
 

Give opportunities to share: Once the child knows they should share as others are also sharing with them, you can consciously create opportunities where children can express their care or share their belongings with others. This will reinforce sharing and caring habits in children. For instance, if a child is munching wafers, you can ask them if they would like to offer them to everyone around as an etiquette.
 

Never use force to make them learn: No wonder all of the parents reading this write-up would want their children to show good manners and behavior. However, one of the biggest mistakes that most parents commit in an attempt to teach good manners to their children is to make use of force. Instead of forcing them to share, firstly, try and understand their behavior, express your understanding of their emotions, make them think how they would feel if others would do the same to them, and then create a motivating environment around the child. This will make them open and willing to share rather than hating you for using force.
 

Be a role model: Even if you teach them less in terms of preaching, what is naturally absorbed by children is what parents do. So, the more often you act as you want them to, it will become their natural nature. Let children follow your acts of kindness, half of the task of teaching them good things will be automatically done for you.
 

Conclusion

We at Gurukul The School, one of the top schools in Ghaziabad, would just like you all to keep in mind that while academic performance has its own vitality in life, the significance of life lessons is nowhere any lesser than that. As such, your emphasis on making them sensitive towards empathetic behavior of sharing and caring will go a long way in making them great human beings, and it will help lead them onto the path where they grow into happy and successful beings.