Practicing Gratitude with Kids
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Spending more time at home has given me time to reflect on all the things we have to be grateful for as a family. From our health, our jobs, and our home to even just time together, there are many things we have to be grateful for that often go unnoticed. This reflection brought upon the realization that practicing thanks is something we don’t really talk about or even acknowledge very often.
Whether we “name” it or not, we all know gratitude is something we feel. Why don’t we challenge ourselves to make the effort to implement thanks in our daily lives? The simple act of saying “thank you” can have a much larger impact than we realize. A number of kids are not in the habit of saying thank you or acknowledging their gratitude, not because they aren’t feeling it, but because they’re not accustomed to saying it out loud. Rather than wait until the holiday season to show our gratitude, I wanted to incorporate a daily reflecting into my own home and share different ways to practice it with you all.
To start, ask your kids what they are thankful for - no matter how small. Their answers will often be silly, but sometimes their emotions and feelings are deeper than we anticipate. As you get further in this practice, stop and check in with your kids. Ask them, why do we get this? Why do we have this? Is this a privilege? This isn’t to say that if your children have privileges that they should be deprived of them - far from it. My goal is for my children to understand the value in the things they have. I think I would be doing a disservice if they don’t recognize all the small positive things in their lives.
Once you get your kids thinking about what they’re thankful for, they’ll start thinking of it on their own. My kids have learned to recognize the different things and people that impact their everyday lives in both big and small ways. When the person who picks up our trash and recyclables arrives, my kids have made it a habit to tell them thank you, even going so far as wanting to give Gatorades to them when they come by. With all the packages we have coming in, they’ve also taken to thanking the UPS drivers and asking for their names so they can write personalized messages of thanks in the yard.
One recent display of gratitude I liked in particular was the letters Ben and AJ wrote for the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. At the beginning of COVID, CHLA was accepting letters for their patients and my kids had a nice experience being a part of the letter writing campaign. Many local department stores and hospitals accept letters like this, especially around the holiday season, so it’s definitely worth a shot to check for something similar in your community.
No matter how big or small your acts of thanks or gratitude are, you’ll start to notice a difference in your kids once it becomes a habit. I know my family has, and it’s something we’ll continue to practice moving forward.
Written by Ngoc Nguyen Lay, Head Rascal. Mother of two rascals, ages 5 and 7. Featured on Magic Paper Studios.
