Teaching children gratitude. Do you struggle with this as much as I do?
Wouldn’t it be nice if our kids innately felt grateful for all we (and others) do for them? That they naturally expressed gratitude and could see how blessed they are?
Certainly, some kids are more predisposed than others, but it’s been my experience, and I’m guessing yours too, that this doesn’t come naturally to most kids. Instead, gratitude is a skill that needs to be taught and practiced repeatedly.
So the big question is: how do we teach it?
In 2014, as an editor for Power of Families, I came across an article by Tiffany Erickson called Landing Gratitude that has stayed with me all these years. (By the way, I have no idea who Tiffany is, but if you know her, tell her I say thank you!)
In the article, Tiffany compares learning the skill of gratitude to learning how to do a flip on a trampoline. Her son practiced over and over again to learn how to do a flip. One day, he finally landed it!
The same goes for gratitude. Our kids (and us!) need to practice being grateful over and over again until, finally, they begin to land it without our help.
Don’t you love that metaphor?
Today, let me share three ways to help your kids practice gratitude until they land it.
Teaching Children Gratitude: 3 Tips
1. Start a daily gratitude practice with your kids.
Make this something you will do as a family as part of your routine. When you have a conscious gratitude practice, you start to look for things that make you grateful. When your awareness of something increases, it leads you to believe it’s happening more frequently. (In psychology this is called frequency illusion.) Having a gratitude practice helps your kids see the good more frequently.
One great way to do this is to use my Kids Flecks of Gold journal! I know I’m biased, but it really is a powerful way to get your kids to practice the skill of gratitude.
2. Play the Good News Bad News game.
This is a game I learned from Tiffany’s article. When something negative happens, she acknowledges the difficulty and then, after validating, encourages her kids to find the good news. This doesn’t mean you glaze over how hard something is, but it does help us see the good within the hard. Wouldn’t it be great if this became part of the vernacular of your family? What a great way to practice landing gratitude!
3. Help your kids write thank you cards (or phone calls or texts!).
This can be a hard one for busy moms! But it’s an important practice. Help your kids understand how to make their thank yous specific and add even just one more sentence to their card to make it meaningful. This will help create a culture of gratitude in your family and give your kids lots of gratitude practice.
Let me end with Dan Sullivan’s words:
My friends, I’m grateful for YOU. I’m grateful you’ve joined me here, and I’m grateful you’re an intentional mom who is intent on teaching your children gratitude. I’m rooting for you!
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What did you think of these takeaways on teaching children gratitude? How do you encourage gratitude in your home? Comment below!
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Related Episodes like this one on Teaching Children Gratitude:
Mentioned in the Episode:
- Get $5 off Flecks of Gold Journals until Dec 3
- Plus! Get Flecks of Gold Digital Download for Kids for $5 off with the code KIDS!
- Landing Gratitude by Tiffany Erickson
Sponsors
- Vionic Shoes: Go to vionicshoes.com and use code 3IN30 for 15% off your order.
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