How To Have A Polite Child Today
I don't mean to brag, but my Ayden has grown up to be such a polite and respectful child. If not all, most of the people we meet ALWAYS compliments me about how polite my son is! Amongst everything that Ayden does, I've grown accustom to the fact that he always says thank you, please, excuse me, sorry, he opens the door for everyone, and shares his toys to anyone. I know for a fact that even when I'm not around, Ayden still says those magic words. Don't get me wrong- I'm not saying my son is perfect, because he's not, he has his own flaws too.
I have never told anyone, but I would prefer a polite and respectful child over a super intelligent one. I feel that you can work on being smart. You can practice reading, writing, and even math, but politeness is something that comes naturally and has to be instilled in children at a very young age. As a Momma, the only best thing you can ever wish for is to impart your kids with goodness in their heart. Here are the three steps I recommend to all Momma's out there:
1. Be their role model
Kids are like sponges, they soak up everything they see or hear. As a parent, you want to show your kids how to properly act. If you say please, thank you, excuse me, and sorry to them, they will shortly include those words in their vocabulary. Although they’re kids, we still need to show them respect (like how we want to be respected). If Ayden is in the middle of something and I need to get his attention, I say, "excuse me, Ayden" because it's the proper thing to do. Treat your kids how you want to be treated, just because they’re kids, doesn't mean you can treat them differently from other people. They learn from you, so show them the act of kindness you want them to practice.
2. Repetition
Just like how your kids learned to sing the ABCs (singing it over and over), politeness needs to be shown continuously. If you're saying please and thank you one day, then you fall off the band wagon, your kids will do the same. For example, your kids will probably show politeness in front of you, but may not in front of other people because they may not feel the need to. You want these values to be a part of them, to be the person they are, so practice it as if it was your new lifestyle. Repetition is key for kids, and it's the best way they learn!
3. APPLAUD THEM
As young kids, you don't know what's good and what's bad. It is our jobs as parents to inform them what is bad and what is good. When your child does something bad, your automatic reaction is to nip it right in the behind to ensure that they don't do it again. But what if they do something good? Your automatic reaction is typically nothing, because for you, it's the norm, it's suppose to be done that way, right? Well... Like kids don't know what's bad, they don't know what's good until you tell them it's good. We focus so much on not doing bad things, but we never compliment our kids when they do good things. Like I mentioned in my introduction above, Ayden opens the door for EVERYONE! This habit of his started at school- the gate in their school automatically closes after someone enters and when parents are rushing their kids to class, they often forget that there's someone behind them. So one day, I decide to open the door for a few of the people behind us and Ayden sees me doing this. The next day he decided to do it himself, I applauded him for being so nice and keeping the door open for his classmates, ever since then, before we enter his school, he keeps the door open for everyone (until everyone's entered).
I'm not a perfect mom, actually, I can be a hot mess. But when other people compliments you on how polite and respectful your child is, you feel like there's finally one thing that you're doing right. Not only that, they will bring these values you instill in them to the world and their future children. As a child, I was told to keep all the "good" things I learn and throw away all the "bad" things. Until now, I still have those words on repeat in my head. Now that I'm a mom, I only want my kids to do the same (keep all the "good" and throw away all the "bad)!
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AuthorMom to two boys! 8 years in the Plastic Surgery industry. Join my journey as I tackle this mom life! Archives
August 2019
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