Thank you, how to teach the children?
There are many occasions in which we force children to be grateful to thank others, but really understand the meaning of giving thanks, Or do they say it as a learned word? Giving thanks is much more than saying thank you, educating our children so that they feel grateful when someone does them is very important, since they will understand the value of these acts.
Educate children in gratitude
Gratitude is much more than the word thank you, gratitude is a feeling and an attitude that greases social relationships and serves to make everyone aware and value both the actions of others and the things they have.
Educating in gratitude is a task that is often forgotten or relegated to the background, like many other values. In an increasingly individualistic society where it is necessary to recover that human bond that brings us closeness and emotional health, educating in gratitude is an indisputable necessity.
Educate to be grateful: something more to say thank you
Normally all families and schools also teach our children to be educated and to give thanks when someone helps them, lends them something, etc. Teaching them to say thank you is fine and that is what we should do, but we must go further. Learning good manners and standards of education is very positive, but in addition, we must be aware that teaching them to say thanks without educating them in the sense of gratitude is useless.
In this way our children learn to say thanks as a formula of courtesy, education and good manners, as an unwritten social norm, but they probably do not feel gratitude and do not understand its meaning. It is very important that in addition to teaching children to say thank you, we educate them to understand several things:
1. When someone does something for us He does not have to do it, and by thanking him we are recognizing his effort.
2. If we put ourselves in the place of the other we can understand that, sometimes, they make efforts for us and thanking them is a way of assessing what they do.
3. Everything we have, does not come out of nowhere, it is important to value and thank what we have.
4. Give thanks help to social relations, not only is it a convention, but the other feels better and so do we.
How can we educate boys and girls to give thanks
1. Try not to pressure him, teach him to say thank you But instead of forcing him to repeat it without meaning, help him understand why he has to say thank you.
2. Beware of overprotecting or giving everything you want and do everything you want. If we do this, the child will think it is normal and not value it and therefore will not be able to feel grateful or understand the meaning of giving thanks. It is not about not giving him anything, but about finding the balance and allowing him to value what he has or what we give him.
3. Educate with your example. It is very important that apart from teaching you to say thank you and make you understand, see how we not only say thank you, but we are also grateful.
4. Remind him that being grateful is the whole attitude, Not just the word, thank you.
5. Help him to put himself in the place of the other so that he understands how he feels and why it is important to thank him.
Celia Rodríguez Ruiz. Clinical health psychologist. Specialist in pedagogy and child and youth psychology. Director of Educayaprende.com. Author of the collection Stimulate Reading and Writing Processes.