Instill Forgiveness and Compassion in your child.

Forgiveness and Compassion are the two traits of value that makes your child a good human being.  Here we will show you how to instill these values in your child.

Forgiveness:

Forgiveness is the process of forgiving or being forgiven. It changes people’s hearts and helps them let go of all negative feelings and vengeance. As parents, you have to help in teaching children forgiveness. Tell your children that by forgiving, it does not mean that they are wrong, but they have chosen to forgive and decided not to hold it against anyone. It takes patience and courage to make your child understand to forgive someone without making him or her pay for what they did.

Forgiveness is a tough value to teach, but can taught by example and requires practice. If your child does anything wrong, take some time to calm down before you talk with them about their mistake, make them apologise and then forgive. A child knows the difference between your anger and calm discipline effort. If you are angry and shout at your child, offer your forgiveness and then proceed. Parents should practice forgiveness among themselves. Each time you choose to forgive each other, you are teaching your children the same.

Parents should not put any condition in exchange of forgiveness. For example, “if you brush your teeth, I’ll forgive you.” Forgiveness means accepting what happened, cannot be changed and no amount anger or vengeance will undo it. Teach your children to ask for forgiveness unconditionally, even if it is not necessary.

Show your child how you forgive others. In order to forgive we need to explore the reason behind a hurtful act. For example, if your child is upset as someone teased him or her or named them. Help your child explore what may be the reason behind their action. Tell your child that maybe the other child felt bad as he or she was not invited to play. Helping your child understand a reason behind the person’s actions makes the negative feelings go away.

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

Compassion:

Compassion is to feel the suffering and misfortune of others and a willingness to help. Teaching compassion to your children helps to prevent verbal, physical, and emotional aggression from taking root. Compassion could also be the key to a more joyful life. It helps us to be more deeply attached to our family and kind to strangers.

Be kind to your children and they will be kind to you, parents should model the kind of behaviour they expect in return. Children will reflect what they see. If they see parents behaving badly with each other, they will do the same. So do not respond in a way that you regret later. Parents should be patient, stay calm and collected while responding to children. When you are angry with anyone, express your displeasure in respectful words while protecting the dignity of other person.

If you see a person who needs your help, stop and help them even if it is not convenient to you. Chance to show compassion will not just occur, show your children that there is no right time to show kindness and compassion. Be there for your children when they are sick, being warm and caring to your child when he/she is sick is the best way to teach them how to show compassion to others.

Teach your children the importance of compassion. Show them movies based on compassion, point out the part where compassion is shown and explain it to them. Talk about the people who are known for their compassion. Educate them about the people who need compassion such as needy, poor, elderly and disabled etc. Take your child to volunteering events where you can involve them in the act of showing compassion. Such as serving meals, distributing clothes to poor or taking part in a charity function.

Show compassion towards animals. Parents should see on how they behave with animals in front of their children. Do not throw stones at stray dogs, but feed them and rehabilitate them instead. Do not crush a bug out of life when you see them. Teach your child that animals should be treated with compassion. And the best way to do that is bringing a pet home. It will let them experience the caring and compassion towards animals first hand. Children who care for pets learn compassion and love sooner than others.

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.”