It’s natural for children to be somewhat self-involved when they’re young. Their main focus tends to be on satisfying their own needs, and as parents, we strive to help them meet those needs. While there’s nothing wrong with that, this self-involvement can quickly turn to self-obsession. As kids mature, this is something that one ought to avoid, and there are a few different ways to do so.
One key way is by teaching them to look outside their own needs and instead pay more attention and become more responsive to the needs of others. In a simple sense, avoiding self-obsession comes from living a life of charity and generosity, and parents play a big role in helping kids develop these traits. To help you on your way to explaining these guiding principles, we listed a few tips on how to teach your kids about generosity. From leading by example to simply talking about it, these tips will help lessen your child’s selfishness!
Give Back to the Community Often
The more your family plans charitable events together, the better. The more you give back to the community, the better. Your children will feel much more inclined to participate if you join them, especially in the beginning. Lucky for you, there are tons of ways kids can give back to the community and that you can join along with them! From donating each month to planting trees together each season, these simple moments of giving back to the community help encourage a charitable giving muscle in your children.
Model Generosity
Similar to the tip above, just like it’s important for you to join your child in some of these charitable acts, it can be an even bigger teaching experience if you model that same generosity you’re teaching them. From the moment your kids are born, they look to you for cues on how to behave, which is why if you really want your kids to grow up into generous individuals, you have to showcase that same trait. Volunteer more, run an errand for an elderly neighbor—the more you do these things, the more your child will want to do them as well.
Talk About Sharing and the Feelings It Brings
As important as it is to act generously, your children may not fully understand it if you don’t explain it to them. Talk about the importance of sharing and then try to delve into the gut reactions and feelings that come from helping others. Ask them how it felt to share their markers with another child—did it make them feel helpful or kind? The more you can key in on these positive emotions that arise from charitable giving, the more they’ll want to obtain those feelings in the future.
Praise Acts of Giving
In that same realm, when you praise their acts of charity, then they’ll notice those positive feelings tenfold. Especially with children, adults need to affirm generous acts—it’ll help them become that much more aware of the fact that they did a good thing. Start pointing out and praising generous acts and then do your best to help them put into the words the positive emotions they have from that. Of course, you’ll also want to make sure that you tell them that praise will not always come from generous acts and they need to focus on those positive feelings they felt.
