What’s worse than an ungrateful child?
While seeking to avoid contributing to little lives growing into big ones feeling more “entitled”, what can we do this week with our little ones to help them avoid becoming similarly spoiled, self-consumed, and shallow adults?
Noted educator, Dr. Michele Borba, says that “80% of people today think kids are more spoiled than they were 10 to 15 years ago.” In another poll, it was found that “only 12% of 2,000 adults feel that kids commonly treat others with respect.” Instead, most described children today as “rude”, “irresponsible”, and “lacking in discipline”.
Left alone to their natural default modes, children will tend to become spoiled, insensitive to others, and lacking in the consideration of others they need for life. Once they graduate high school, these traits tend to be set in the concrete and can define a child’s life and future. Unfortunately, ungrateful kids all too quickly become ungrateful adults. An entitled attitude and outlook creates a person who is:
- Lacking persistence to overcome challenges in their lives
- Depressed and depressing to be around
- Difficult to be around and off-putting
- Devoid of empathy
- Stingy
With that in mind, the best day to start nurturing gratitude in your child is TODAY. And, this is a great season to underline gratitude and share some experiences with your child that will help you do so.
Here are a few ways we believe will help you nurture gratefulness or gratitude in your kids:
1) Stories About Other Experiences
Expose your child to people’s lives and experiences in other nations — and to other children in deep need — through videos.
There are great stories you can read about and watch via video at websites like Compassion International, World Vision, and Samaritan’s Purse. Learning more about amazing children in much less fortunate environments will impress something on your child.
2) “Nation Plate” at Mealtime
Go around the world at mealtimes one week, or one night a week, with “Nation Plates”.
You can have one night with an “Italy Plate” with spaghetti, on the next have a “Mexico Plate” with tortillas, and a “Burundi Plate” (one of the poorest nations of the world) with very little on it. Every “Nation Plate” night, just before your bring the food out from the kitchen, have your kids close their eyes. Once the food is on the table, announce the nation and then talk about that country. One the third or fourth night, focus on Burundi or another impoverished nation. Let your hungry child experience some shock over how little they see on the plate for their hungry stomachs. Talk about that and what it must be like to have so little. Watch a short video about children in those areas. Then, have something later to help fill their stomachs.
3) Create a Grateful Box
Fill up a “Grateful Box” before your prayer time.
Create a big colorful box with your child and then ask them to go through the house and fill it with the things they like most. Then sit down and pray together, thanking God for each of those “gifts.”
These things and similar ones should help you nurture the quality of gratitude. But, be intentional and determined about it. Not only will it help your child and their future, it might help change yours a bit at home today.
As writer Melody Beattie says, “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, and a stranger into a friend.”
What are some other ways you work to grow more grateful kids in your home? Share them with us! We would be so “grateful” if you did!
Dr. Robert C. Crosby is the President of Emerge Counseling Ministries, a pastor, author, and leadership expert, passionate about equipping individuals and organizations to thrive.
He has authored several books on leadership and spiritual growth, including The One Jesus Loves and The Teaming Church. Dr. Crosby received his PhD from Regent University; his work integrates faith, psychology, and practical leadership principles.
