A Child’s Hope is Grounded in Love & Kindness
Children need to be surrounded with people who show them love and kindness. It is what allows them to grow and flourish. It helps them develop positive self-esteem and will continue to influence them for their entire lives.
Do You Know How to Instill Hope in Your Child?
It’s incredibly important to teach your child about hope before they are faced with the tougher social injustices they will face in school.
If they have been over-protected, they will be totally unprepared for the bullying and teasing that happens on the playground, classroom, and lunchroom every single day. There are some simple techniques you can implement immediately to help them develop an honest and positive feeling of hope:Teach them about Goal Setting
Teach Them About Goal Setting
This is a very important step in the challenge of helping a child learn about feeling hopeful. Parents need to be extremely careful that they help the child set goals that are age-appropriate. I’ve seen kids trying to perform at college levels in Junior High sports at the bidding of an over-zealous parent. Don’t be caught in this trap. You do nothing but confirm feelings of hopelessness and low self-worth when you push the child beyond their maturity level. Children can become stimulated and excited when they set reachable goals. If you feel the goal they set has too many challenges, help them set goals that are reachable in a relatively short period of time. Let them find success in small goals before you allow them to set extremely difficult challenges for themselves.
Teach Them to be Resilient
Children are like adults. They’re going to fail once in awhile. This is a perfect opportunity to sit down and talk about what they want their next step to be. They can quit without remorse. That is the key about quitting. I failed at lots of things as a kid. For those things that were extremely important to me, I found ways to work-around the original fail and find new ways to approach the problem. Some things didn’t matter all that much. I was proud that I had tried, but I didn’t mind giving it up. Sometimes failure is grounded in the child’s own lack of incentive to put in the correct amount of time necessary to succeed. Don’t be judgmental. Stay positive and let them know that next time perhaps if they practice harder they will have a more positive outcome.
Teach Them to Work Together
Nothing gives a person more hope than learning that goals can be met so much quicker when we work together. Two committed individuals can accomplish a goal much more quickly than one person working alone. When we share the task, the outcome gives hope for more successes over time.
Teach Them to Try Their Best
Perfection is highly over-rated. My daily goal has always been to do a little better than I did the day before. This is a perfect lesson to teach children. They don’t have to be an NFL football star nor do they have to paint like Rembrandt. Let them know that you are the proudest when you see that they have done their absolute best in anything they attempt to do. Don’t expect perfection and don’t praise too highly when they reach perfection or they will believe that is the only acceptable outcome. Think about your own efforts on the job. There are some things you truly enjoy doing and are quite good at. There are other things that you hate doing, but still do your best. Don’t judge them too harshly if they have made an acceptable effort.
Teach Them to Respect Property
This is a really tough one. Children need to be taught to respect property and wealth; but they also need to be taught that wealth and possessions are not the basis for judging worthiness. Some of the most incredible people I have ever met are those who struggle on a daily basis to put food on the table and a roof over their family. There is a huge difference between respect and worship. I have an extended family member who has always judged people based on how much money they have. I find that so incredibly disappointing. A child should be taught to hope for security, safety, and health. Wealth is never the ultimate goal. That said, I have also seen children who have no respect for the possessions their parents have worked very hard for.
Teach Them to Place People First
This is one of the most important lesson you can teach your children. There is no hope if we don’t value others more than we value possessions. The greatest lesson a parent can teach a child is how to value friends and family. They will lose hope easily if they don’t understand how incredibly important the people closest to them are.
