How to Encourage Children to Be Helpful
How to Encourage Children to Be Helpful
Encourage children to be helpful. It’s something you can teach and your kids can learn at a young age!
If your family is anything like mine, then you know that while in concept everyone would help out, that’s not always the case. Sometimes getting even my husband to help out around the house can be a chore!
Teaching our children and encouraging them to be helpful is something that your kids will need to learn at a young age. If you are having a hard time getting your children to be beneficial, here are a few ways you can help encourage them.
Related: 5 Easy Ways to Teach Your Kids About Gratitude
Give Them Responsibilities or Chores
Make your children in charge of things. It could be that they are the only one who sets the table or the only one who will take care of their laundry. By giving them these responsibilities, they can learn how to pull their own weight around the house. Even the most petite toddler is capable of helping out around the house. Giving chores or regular tasks they need to complete will help encourage them to be more helpful.
Teach Through Action and Be a Role Model
Volunteer together and show them by leading as an example. Children mirror what we do. So if you show them what it means to be helpful, they will learn by your example. For example, do your household chores when they do theirs, offer to do a volunteer task that they would enjoy, and show them what helping looks like. Becoming a good role model and sharing experiences or memories of how you helped others can also inspire them to be more active in helping others too.
Explain to Them What Helpful Behaviors Are
What does it mean to be helpful? What are ways that we can help others? Although showing your children how they can be helpful is a great thing to do, telling them other ways to be beneficial is also great. Brainstorm with your child different ways they can help out! This could be anything from helping out their community, classroom, or helping out at home. You can even make a list for them or share with them how they can apply the things they’ve written down into their daily life.
Teach Your Kids How to Be Kind
This one might come as a surprise, but kind children are more helpful children. When they can identify someone in need and help them, they are practicing kindness. Teaching your kids what it means to help others and be kind will help them learn to be more helpful.
If your child is experiencing destruction or negative emotions toward helping others, talk with them and teach them how helping others can be a kind thing to do. This might be hard for complex learners, but they will feel good when helping others and sometimes need a push to get started.
As you can see, you don’t have to force your children to do chores to get them to be helpful! There are so many ways that your children can learn to be helpful and better people for learning this skill.
