I’ve been thinking about writing this post for awhile. I don’t claim to be a perfect parent, but there are a few things that remain priority on my list of lessons to pass along to my kids. I remember my mom sitting us down after a holiday or birthday to write thank you notes.
We didn’t necessarily have to write notes to people we were able to thank in person, but we did write notes to those who weren’t there to thank.
Teaching Gratitude to Kids
Nowadays, it’s rare to even get a thank you note from an adult let alone a child. It takes time to sit down with a child to write out thank you notes…. Time we don’t all have, but time we should make.
Gratitude is a trait that’s so important for our society and it’s slowly fading away. Here are a few tips to help your kids to be thankful.
- Let them pick out their own thank you notes at the store. It will give them more ownership of the project. Check out this website that let’s you easily design and print your own thank you cards.
- After an event, have your kids make a list of the gifts they received and match it with the gift giver. This makes a fun matching game and it will stick in their brains.
- If they aren’t sending a note, remind them to verbally thank their gift givers and remind them of the gift they received.
- Identify gifts (if you can remember) when they use them throughout the year ie. “That Leapfrog map Nana bought for you is really cool.”
Just a little bit of time is worth the result – a member of society who is appreciative of other’s efforts. A dying breed for sure!
