How to Teach and Practice Gratitude With Your Kids
By Movieguide® Contributor
Thanksgiving is the perfect time to teach your children about the importance of gratitude.
Jody Baumstein, a therapist, recently discussed why and how parents should talk about being thankful with their kids.
“So, we know that people who regularly practice gratitude feel less stress. They’re more hopeful. They’re even more resilient because they can hold the big picture and don’t just focus on what’s going wrong,” Baumstein told Fox5 Atlanta. “They tend to be more connected to others because they know how to express appreciation, and therefore, people feel more connected and more seen.”
READ MORE: KIRK CAMERON CALLS GRATITUDE ‘A POWERFUL WEAPON TO DESTROY EVIL’
Gratitude also keeps us physically healthy. According to the Mayo Clinic, positive gestures, like gratitude, “benefit you by releasing oxytocin, a hormone that helps connect people.”
“We know that it even has an impact on physical health because we know people who regularly practice gratitude and express it tend to sleep better, eat better, and even have better immune function, so they’re less likely to get sick, less likely to chronic pain and illness,” Baumstein added.
The next step is to teach kids how to practice gratitude.
“First, we have to teach them how to recognize this feeling of appreciation because we can’t expect them to express something if they don’t know that it exists,” Baumstein explained. “So, we’re building up this awareness; then we’re also going to focus on teaching them about things that money can’t buy. We’re expressing gratitude for things like a beautiful day or spending time together.”
“Then another really important part of teaching them is helping them to understand where things come from and how things are made,” she added. “Which is becoming increasingly more difficult because we know that with a click of a button, something can arrive at our doorstep. For many of us, we’ve lost sight of this process, but especially for young kids who didn’t always know anything different, it’s important to break this down to build their appreciation for it.”
You can make teaching your kids gratitude a fun family activity.
VeryWell Mind suggests creating a gratitude jar or board where each person writes down or adds notes or pictures of things they’re thankful for.
Most importantly, though, as parents, we should model gratitude each day to our kids through our prayers, thanking God for His blessings and how He’s at work in our lives.
READ MORE: HERE’S ONE SIMPLE WAY TO SHARE YOUR GRATITUDE THIS THANKSGIVING
