It’s possible to teach your toddler gratitude. When you speak about gratitude with toddlers, you’re in a better position to build strong and positive relationships. Gratefulness is essential for psychological health in adults. It’s also believed that cultivating grateful people could reduce violence, promote more satisfying relationships, and even boost academic achievement.
Teaching about gratefulness is not something that will come easily to your toddler, but it is a lesson that can be taught with simple examples. Showing your child what it means to be grateful can help them understand the importance of being thankful and appreciative.
Teaching your toddler to be grateful can be challenging. You may find yourself repeating the exact phrases over and over without getting through to them. But with a little bit of patience and creativity, it’s possible to raise a thankful toddler.
You will learn how to teach your toddler gratefulness with the five steps below. This can be a great way to bond with your toddler and improve their sense of self-worth. It may seem like a daunting task, but if you approach it confidently, you will be able to help your toddler feel appreciation for what they have.
1. Choose Your Battles
When we choose our battles with our toddlers, it’s essential to pick something worth fighting. For example, it’s worth it to insist that your toddler say thank you for the gift Aunt Gail brought her today and share it with her brother. It’s not worth it to expect gratitude for the food you prepare or the toys you buy her. Children are egocentric creatures who often don’t understand how their actions affect others, so they need guidance in this area.
Teach them the words “please” and “thank you” early on, and model these words often. Say “thank you” anytime they say it!
When your toddler brings you something or asks for something, acknowledge what they’ve done by saying “thank you.” They may not understand why we say thank you, but they will come to realize that when they ask for something or give you something, we say “thank you.”
Allow them to see you saying “thank you” often. Even if it’s just a quick thanks to someone who holds the door open for you at the store or a more formal thank-you note after receiving a gift from family or friends — let them be exposed to how we show gratitude in many situations.
2. Reinforce Their Actions and Expose Them To Opportunities
If your toddler is not yet talking very much, you can use body language and facial expressions as an opportunity to teach them about being thankful. When someone does something nice for you, say “Thank you” and smile at them while giving them a hug or high five. This will teach your toddler that giving thanks makes people feel happy and good about themselves.
Get them involved in giving back. Whether it’s buying an extra can of food for the local food drive or visiting a retirement home to cheer people up, there are many ways to get your children involved in giving back to the community. This will help them understand that other people are having a hard time and could use their help.
Giving is a powerful way to teach children gratefulness. Encourage your child to help you around the house or help another person in need by giving them their time or resources (toys, books, etc.). We mustn’t force children to do these things but simply provide them with an opportunity and allow them to make choices on their own.
One of the best ways for your children to learn about gratitude is by sharing. Sharing teaches them that other people matter and that not everything in this world belongs solely to them. When they share their toys with other kids or give their favorite book away to another child, they’ll learn that these things don’t just belong to them, but that others can enjoy them too. Not only will this help foster gratitude in your child, but it will also help make sharing a habit for them later on down the road when they are older and more independent.
3. Help Them To Express Themselves
Encourage conversation and expression. Start with “I feel thankful for my family” or “I am grateful for my parents’ love.”
Then, ask your child to say something he is thankful for — it will be a good opportunity for you to have an idea of his priorities and how he thinks about different things in life.
You will probably be surprised by the answers, so don’t stop asking!
Another excellent way of teaching your toddler gratefulness is by encouraging conversations and actions that go hand in hand with thankfulness. For example: if your kid says, “I like this new toy” or “I am happy I got the ice cream,” then follow up with “Why do you like it? What makes it so special?
Look for ways other people show gratitude and point them out to your child. Say things like, “Look at how happy that waitress looks when she brings us our food” or “That man thanked the bus driver for stopping for him.” This helps your child become more aware of others’ kindnesses and the gratitude they can show in response.
4. Model Gratefulness
Gratitude is best taught through modeling, so you have to start with yourself if you want to teach your toddler gratefulness.
One of the best ways to model gratitude is by saying “I’m sorry” when you make a mistake. I was amazed when I heard a story about a toddler apologizing to her friends for grabbing their toys. She modeled her parents’ behavior and saw how it impacted others.
You can also model gratefulness by saying “please” and “thank you” often.
When your child shows gratefulness towards you, such as hugging you or letting you know how much they love you, affirm that action with a big smile and lots of praise! This will help them internalize these behaviors even more because they know highly valued specific actions.
A great way to teach gratitude is by helping your toddler give gifts to others on special occasions. Try taking your child shopping for birthday presents for family members or friends. Show them how happy their gift makes the other person feel by explaining what it means to receive a gift and why people like receiving them.
While modeling gratefulness, teach it, too. I firmly believe that gratitude is a learned response, and if we don’t show our children how to be grateful, they won’t know-how. Just showing them how we say grace before meals and sending them to Sunday school will teach them nothing about being truly grateful people.
So when you see your toddler doing something nice for someone else, say, “Wow! Thank you so much for helping Mommy put away the laundry!” When your child shows gratitude by saying “Thank you,” affirm that response by saying, “I love it when you thank people for their gifts!”
5. Celebrate Small Victories
Teaching gratefulness to toddlers isn’t rocket science, and it’s about teaching them about empathy, showing them how to express their feelings appropriately, and celebrating small victories when they do.
Be careful how you praise them. Instead of saying “good job” or “good girl,” try saying something like, “I love how you stayed calm when I said ‘no.'”
When children learn gratitude, they are more likely to feel happier because they focus on the positive things in their life rather than what they don’t have or wish they had.
Getting Started
All five tips above are worth trying, but this combination of techniques seems practical and feasible. How to teach your toddler gratefulness is ultimately up to you, but the act of appreciation is one that you’ll want to nurture in your little ones for years to come.