Boosting your child’s emotional health.
As lockdowns ease, we are naturally drawn back together with friends and family. We look forward to spending time strengthening our relationships, doing our best to make up for all of our missed celebrations, meals and shared laughs. Now more than ever, it is important to support our children’s abilities to have meaningful connections with others. Teaching our children to give back not only demonstrates the importance of looking outside of ourselves and seeing the needs of others, but also instills the vital quality of empathy.
Through volunteering, or a simple act of kindness, children learn early on that giving back is not only the right thing to do but that it brings personal happiness and gratitude – foundations for good mental health!
5 Reasons For Our Children To Practice Giving:
- Instills empathy and compassion within them.
- Creates a sense of self-worth, boosts self-esteem and confidence. This is very empowering.
- Provides feel-good experiences as they learn how they can positively affect the lives of others.
- Builds a sense of community and helps establish their “place in the world.”
- It’s contagious!
Where can we start? Look around- people who need a helping hand are probably closer than you think! Does a neighbour need help watering their garden? Walking their dog?
The empathy children gain helps them recognize varying perspectives, communicate their ideas and realize they live in an interconnected world of people from many cultures, backgrounds, and circumstances. Ultimately, their experiences and connections to causes will last a lifetime, creating more understanding, tolerant and compassionate adults.
Credit, Excerpt: The Transformative Power of Childhood Volunteering – Emily-Anne King, <bcparent.ca>
