Happy Thursday, my dearest internet friends! It’s time for this month’s Seeking Advice! Seeking Advice is my monthly series where I ask you all for your advice on a topic, and then post the answers a week later. You can check out past Seeking Advice posts here: Bad Language, Stranger Danger, Money, Kids and Tragedy, Time Management, and Sibling Rivalry.
As parents, there are so many questions we may have and for the most part, for each question, there are a million different answers. So where do you start? How do you determine what is the “right” answer? For me, the answer is research and ask around – which is what this series for.
Once a month, I ask a question to all of you about an aspect of parenting that is all shades of gray. I’ll ask the question(s), give my own opinion on the matter, and then leave it to all of you lovely people. My hope is that the comments section of this post will fill up with helpful, supportive comments that reflect a number of different points of view. After a week has passed, I will then compile the most helpful comments into one post called, “Advice Found: Sibling Rivalry”. If you are a blogger, I will include a link back to your blog so that if someone really identifies with your view on something, they can hop over and learn more about you. If you have written a post on the topic in the past, feel free to leave it with your comment – I may link it up! This post will go up on a Sunday, so the Advice Found for this post will go live on November 12. I hope for this series to become a resource for myself and others trying to navigate parenting and life, as well as a place where we can all be honest, open, and accepting.
That being said, any rude or hurtful comments will be deleted without notice. I want everyone to feel comfortable expressing views and opinions without worrying.
This month’s Seeking Advice topic is : Gratitude and Kids!
With it being November, I’m finding myself thinking about Thanksgiving (have you seen my adorable, festive pudding cups?) and in turn, being thankful. Obviously, sharing things we are thankful from the year is a big part of the holiday festivities, and personally, it’s one of my favorites.
Now that Ryan is getting older, I’m beginning to think about how we will teach him to be thankful for the blessings in his life. I’m not going to lie, you guys – I’m kind of at a loss for how to start his early.
I’m determined to have gracious and thankful children who are appreciative, but I don’t know how to get there. Right now I mostly do the whole “Thank you, Mommy,” and “Say thank you!” things since he isn’t quite to the point of saying it himself. But I have absolutely no idea where to go from here. I am one of those people that feel that today’s society is an ungrateful one, and I refuse – refuse – to contribute to that. I want my kids to be thankful for everything they have.
So my question this month is: How do you teach your children about gratitude? How did your parents each you to be grateful? I’d love to hear your answers on this topic, so please be sure to leave them below in the comments!
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Heather @ Polyglot Jot says
I think you could say something you were grateful for each day at your bedtime routine. It will have them learn to look back on things with a grateful heart.
Emily says
I love that my parents reminded me that everything was a gift, a gift from God, and that always made the little things seem pretty big to me.
I can’t wait to see all the responses on this post; I could definitely learn from this!
Jessie @ The Acquired Sass says
Honestly, this is one of those things that I feel like the older you get the more perspective you have. I passed out candy for Halloween the other night & kids were such little SH*T HEADS. maybe 10% said “Trick or Treat” & maybe 5% said “Thank you” – the rest asked ridiculous questions like “How many pieces can I take”.
I guess now that I think about it I think gratitude & free will go pretty hand in hand. Grateful is a choice. And it’s hard sometimes when things suck – but things could always suck more, and even if they do there are always things to be grateful for. I know for me we always talked about things we were grateful for. But that also I usually was around when my Dad watched the news, so I had a good visual about people who definitely had it worse than I did, and by a lot.
Shelly says
Kids will learn so much from watching their parents. Even if he is too small to actually do an act of kindness himself he is witnessing you do these things. At a very young age we have done things such as leaving a note and a treat for the mailman, taking a treat to the fire station, volunteering at the foodbank, picking a child from an angel tree at Christmas of a similar age and letting him participate in the gift buying.
Chloe Crabtree says
Oh what a challenge this is. With grown children I can only saw we tried to set a good example and took our children to church regularly. Shelly above me has some great ideas!
Sandra L Garth says
Our children are adults now and some with kids of their own. Like you, saying thank-you was something we instilled in them early on and we do the same with our grands. Kids nowadays take so many things for granted. I also experienced the same thing that Jess did at Halloween. It was amazing how some kids didn’t say thank you.