The proverb, “Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes” couldn’t be more relevant today. In a world where selfishness and competitive spirit precedes kindness and compassion, it is crucial that values such as empathy should be imbibed in the children from an early age. You Should make your children to care about others

What is Empathy?

Empathy is all about understanding one’s situation and providing help to make their situation better. Empathy is an important value to instil as empathy develops gratitude, compassion, and hope in a child. These values help in developing a wholesome personality. But, empathy is often confused with sympathy but these two are completely different words.

Difference Between Empathy and Sympathy

Empathy is feeling what the person is going through while sympathy is acknowledging one’s pain. Compassionate kids are able to understand what the other person is going through or feeling which helps him in striving to find a solution that will make the situation better for the person in need.

Ways to Express Empathy

It is never too late or early to start developing empathy. One study found out that kids as young as 18 months were able to tune into people’s emotions. In fact, a 4-year-old starts thinking about other people’s feelings in relation to his own. Even though many responses happen naturally in kids, parents should make a conscious effort to show how empathy is a good thing.

There are 3 ways in which an individual expresses empathy.

Emotional Sharing where a person feels the same level of distress as the person who is distressed. Perspective-taking where a person can the act from other person’s perspective. Empathic concern where a person is motivated to help the one in need.

Fostering empathy is not easy as feeling other people’s pain is not something a child is looking forward to. There are various fun and interesting ways you can foster empathy and help children care about others.

Ways to Foster Empathy

Trolling and speaking your mind without thinking about consequences is glorified in social media and media likewise. Start young and be consistent to make empathy part of their personality.

Lead the Way

Children absorb everything around them. When they see you screaming in the car while driving or being rude to the help, they also start believing that it is okay to scream or be rude to people. Your actions will be the benchmark for your child.

Use golden words such as please and thank you in front of the child.

Always be ready to help someone in need.

Evaluate the possible solutions to one’s problems with your child.

Always be courteous to others.

Ask your child about whether he helped anyone in need today. It is important to make them realize that even though helping others is good there are limitations and they can’t everyone that they meet. Evaluating possibilities and what they can do for them is the key to understanding their role in helping each other.

Story Time

Storytime is the one time where a child can run wild with his imagination. You can use interesting stories to foster empathy. Classics such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Peter Pan, etc can be used for discussing why a character did what they did or what would they would have done if they were in their place.

Give Do-overs and Rewards

Punishment never works. If you want your child to wire themselves in a certain way, you need to give them sufficient time to evaluate their words or deeds. If your child is insensitive towards someone or something, tell them that they are getting a do-over to come up with an appropriate response. This is a perfect time to teach them that the actions and words can hurt someone.

Using Social Media

Social media is a crowded place. Children might use a negative tone or insensitivity to fit in. Talk to your child about how social media affects one’s mental state. Watch movies and have a discussion about the harmful effect of social media. However, be mindful of the fact that social media is a huge part of everyone’s lives and you can’t deny its importance. While you are talking about how posts can harm someone, you should also highlight how it has improved the way people connect. Making this into a discussion rather than a lecture will help bring a positive change.

No Competition Zone

Competitiveness is a double-edged sword as it can help keep a person motivated and driven or easily lead to insensitivity and selfishness in order to achieve the goal. Your child should know how to work as a team. Competition between siblings may result in creating a negative environment for the growing kids. When you say, “Let’s see who finishes the food first.”, you are setting up the siblings against each other. They will soon see the competitor as someone who is standing between their success. Instead, it is important to show them that the work will remain incomplete if they don’t work as a team. Give them chores where they have to work as a team so that they naturally learn to coexist and communicate effectively in order to finish their chores.

Acknowledge Kindness

Children’s moral compass is ever-evolving. They pick up clues from home, media, social media, and friends to gauge what is right or wrong. Acknowledging an act of kindness will show them that people always appreciate an act of kindness and that it feels good to do good. Say things likes, “It was so nice of the man to open the door for us.” or “What the Prime minister did today will help so many people.”

Empathy Activities for Kids can help you raise compassionate kids. Compassion is the building block of a well-rounded personality. Be mindful of the way you act around your children.

Also Read: Things Parents Can Do to Make Children Respect the Opposite Sex