I am raising a thankful child.

 

Saying thank you is important and I feel I have really stressed that to my boys. I say thank you for just about everything ; no matter how small the favor was. I always make sure that everyone around me feels like they are not taken for granted and being respected. I like to make people feel like they mean something to me, and I know with a simple thank you they can feel aware of their importance in your life. Before I had kids I remember when parents used to make their children say thank you to me for small things I did without really thinking I needed to be thanked. For instance, a child I would help tutor, the mother would make him call me after every passing test to thank me for helping him achieve that passing grade, and I would automatically feel the need to say he didnt have to thank me because I did it out of the kindness of my heart. But now as a mother I completely understand what she was trying to instill in her child. She was raising him to be thankful. To be thankful for every person that helps you, either big or small. They have to understand at an early age that not everything is handed to you and that everyone has feelings. As good humans we acknowledge all people with kindness. We reciprocate even with a simple thank you. I have heard many mothers say that they wont force their child to say thank you to someone if they truly dont feel like thanking them. But that just doesnt fly here. My child will say thank you if you simply hand them a tissue. I think its just a necessary habit we have to instill in them right away, because they will start to simply understand that being kind can make a change. Its such a simple thing we dont feel can make much of a difference, but it does. I think about it as this - they will be an adult one day at a restaurant with their girlfriend. The waiter will come and serve them drinks, and ill be damned if my son doesnt show his date the gentlemen he is by saying thank you. Because that waiter is doing their job, but just because it is someones job doesnt necesarly mean they arent human. I am a firm believer in the saying that nothing greatly accomplished was done with just one. I believe fully that if you are doing big things, and making all your goals and dreams come true, you are most likely not doing it alone. There is a large group of people right behind you - helping you, cheering you on, and working just as hard to make it all happen FOR YOU. That saying- it takes a village. It surely does. And this is just another way that you can teach your children that they arent going to just make things happen all the time on their own. So in order to get places and make dreams happen - you have to be a decent person, with manners - that accepts others, and takes into consideration that they are just like you at the end of the day.  I know that when I do something for my kids or my significant other a simple thank you can really make my day, and keep me motivated to keep on being my best. So I can only imagine just how amazing our kids feel when they hear it too. I remind them all the time of their good choices by saying thank you. When they walk in from school and take their shoes off ; and nicely place them on the welcome mat - I say thank you , because every good choice needs to praised for them to realize that good choices are whats best for them to choose. I always remind my children how grateful they should be and how many people don't have what they have. They may be too young to fully understand it .. but I'm not going to use their age as an excuse to not start teaching them kindness now rather than later -when it might be too little too late. It's the smallest gestures that add up & make them the most important! Whether it is something over the top amazing ; or slightly life changing I will raise my kids to be thankful.