Parenting #7 – Attitude of gratitude

 “Thank you”, “Please” and “Sorry” are the golden words which each one of us should be using frequently.

“Thank you Mommy for the awesome lunch”, says my daughter after eating every meal cooked by me. After acknowledging her thanks, I thank the Universe for giving me such a wonderful daughter who knows to appreciate things in her life and has not taken them for granted.

I would say a “thank you”, when my child helps me. This helps in two ways. One, the child understands that I appreciate her behaviour or action, that she has done something good; it hence reinforces her behaviour. Secondly, it builds the foundation for gratitude and empathy in her.

Having reflection time is one of the many ways in appreciating and being grateful for what we have and experience. A good time is at the end of the day when we can ask our child what went good or what went bad during the day. This also helps them opening up to us as they see us sharing our day’s events with them. They will realise that we are also, like them having good days and bad days and they will share their day’s events with us without any hesitation. They will also realise that there are solutions to handling difficult situations. This has a bearing on their thinking. They become solution oriented.

We should encourage them to maintain a gratitude journal. Thanking someone is a way to show our appreciation for the other person his behaviour. In certain cases, it is a way of showing that their actions are not taken for granted. Gratitude starts at home.

When something good happens in our lives, we need to count our blessings and one of the ways is to thank the universe and acknowledge that we are indeed blessed. Thanking for the food on table and the ability to enjoy our meal prior to eating a meal sets a precedence to our child to be thankful of the good things in their lives.   

Exposing our children to the lives of the less fortunate will make them realise how blessed they are. This will teach them to learn to appreciate and be thankful. At the same time empathy also builds up.

Attitude of gratitude is something our child picks up only from her surroundings and especially, from our actions. Opportunity to express gratitude is everywhere. We need to practice it everyday so that our child also gets into the habit.