How can I consciously model kindness for my child?

Your child learns a great deal about morality simply by your behavior. That’s why it’s so important to model what you want your child to copy. If you want your child to be kind whenever you are together, consciously demonstrate kind behavior. We tend to do kind behaviors so naturally that our children may miss them, so deliberately tune them up.

There are so many daily opportunities: watching your friend’s child, phoning a friend who is down, picking up trash, soothing a child, giving directions, asking someone how she is, baking cookies for your family. After performing the kindness, be sure to tell your child how good it made you feel!

By seeing kindness in through your daily words and deeds and hearing you emphasize how being kind makes you feel good, your child will be much more likely to follow your example. The old saying, Children learn what they live, has a lot of truth to it.