Why do we need to raise Compassionate Children?

You might have heard of the recent suicides amongst teenagers, or might have seen 13 reasons why. (A popular Netflix show) And wondered why the kids were being so mean to Hannah. Well, Indian statistics shows that one student commits suicide every hour. We often think that the reason for suicide is the pressure of studies or marks but it can also be because a student is getting bullied. And that is why we need to raise compassionate children.

How is the lack of Compassionate Children harming us?

Well due to the lack of Compassion among kids the practice of bullying exits. And it is happening in most of the schools too, there is a bully who is troubling a kid.  And the victim of bullying may suffer from depression and may even commit suicide to end it. The latest example being the Australian boy who was bullied for his dwarfism. A copy of the now-deleted video is viewable here on YouTube. 

And that is why we need to step in and raise those kids with compassion, kindness, and trust so that they can turn out to be morally good people. And more importantly, they can save themselves and also others’ lives. Or else they may turn out to be bullies or even worse like them.

In a world where kindness is dying and people are suffering from depression and other mental diseases. Being kind is the only thing that can make it better. And that is the only thing I rarely see nowadays. You would have heard of the recent social media cases of hate speech and violence. Where is so much hatred coming from? And why aren’t their more kind people? 

What is the reason for Children being less Compassionate?

Well, the reason for it is that they are not raised in that way. About 80 per cent of the youth in a study said that their parents were more concerned with their achievement or happiness than whether they cared for others. The teenagers who took the interview were also three times more likely to agree that “My parents are prouder if I get good grades in my classes than if I’m a caring community member in class and school.” 

The thing is we ourselves do not value kindness or compassion; neither do we pass it on to our children. Moral science is a subject that none of us takes seriously. But we are the ones to complain about lack of kindness and compassion. Saying that the world is full of fake people and no one cares for anyone else etc.

Well, the fact is, it is up to us to take care of this. We can either keep ignoring kindness and then complain about it like a hypocrite or raise our future generation with kindness and compassion.

How to raise your Kids to be Kind and Compassionate

Now the question is how do you raise them to be kind? There are many ways in which you can raise compassionate children. Here I will be talking about a few of them:

Show them the Joy they can see on someone else face by being kind to them.

You can encourage your child to donate his toy or help a lady cross the road and tell him/her to notice the smile or joy the kid has when he gets the toy. Your kid would also feel happy about it, talk to him about how he feels after doing this. They will start to understand generosity and gratitude by doing so. 

Explain that calling someone names or excluding him from play can be hurtful for them

If you hear your child calling names to others or excluding him from playing with him, go and talk to him. And show him how the other child feels after being called that name. Don’t make your child apologize to him forcefully. Instead, explain to him what he has done wrong and point to him how he made the other child feel sad or upset. Also, ask him why he did so? If there is a problem between those children talk about it and solve it calmly. Also if his group is excluding a child from playing with them, teach him to talk to his group and include that child. Show him how upset the child is after being excluded so he can empathize with him/her. 

 Don’t let rudeness pass on. 

 Well if someone talks to you or your child with rudeness. Instead of teaching him to respond in a mean way tell him that the person being mean might be having a bad day. This teaches your child that when someone is being mean to you, you don’t have to be mean in response.

And last but not the least

Be patient with your little one. 

It takes time to learn kindness and compassion and life presents challenging situations even to adults. So give your child time and never give up on them. Being a loving parent and a great role model will go a long way toward raising your little one to be kind and compassionate.

I hope you enjoyed reading it and found the importance of being kind and Compassionate. So be kind to me and share this article among your friends so they can also learn from this.