Hakaras hatov? | Imamother

amother

OP ↓

Sun, Nov 24 2024, 7:09 pm

How do you teach gratitude and appreciation to children who always want more and more? We encourage them to say thank you and appreciate but it always comes back to we want more and not appreciating what they have

amother

Bone

Sun, Nov 24 2024, 7:10 pm

Hard one in this day and age. Following.

amother

Crystal ↓

Sun, Nov 24 2024, 7:52 pm

I got my kids a nice journal & encourage them to keep a gratitude journal. They take afew minutes every day to think about & right down specific things that they're thankful for about that day.

amother

↑ OP

Sun, Nov 24 2024, 9:38 pm

amother Crystal wrote:

I got my kids a nice journal & encourage them to keep a gratitude journal. They take afew minutes every day to think about & right down specific things that they're thankful for about that day.

Kids are too young

amother

↑ Crystal

Sun, Nov 24 2024, 9:46 pm

amother OP wrote:

Kids are too young

You can do it with little kids as well. Have a daily discussion with them about what they're thankful for today.
You can also add "thank you hashem" in your everyday lexicon.

amother

Butterscotch

Sun, Nov 24 2024, 10:27 pm

This is a tough one. I don’t know where you live or what the dynamics are between you and the people closest to you, but I find that with very young kids it’s a combination of modeling and finding opportunities to say “yes” when it’s not a big deal so that they don’t feel like they are always being told “no”. And as always, it starts when they’re super young, which it sounds like your kids are. I’m raising 2 preschoolers BH, one of whom is just starting to enter the “can I have” stage. DH and I are not the kind of people who discuss what others have, we constantly thank each other out loud for the day to day things we do like making dinner and picking up the kids from school, and we do nightly gratitude to HaShem with the kids, so we hope that it carries over. Obviously everyone’s ability to say yes to their kids’ requests is largely dependent on their financial situation. Try to find some things to say yes to, so that you can teach them that just because you can’t have everything doesn’t mean you need to live with nothing.

Just an example of a recent exchange in our house (again, keep in mind that this is a preschooler)- dc wants to take all sorts of lessons. Sports, swimming, music, you name it. I told them that our schedule would only allow for one night a week- choose one, and on a different night when we can’t go out we can do an activity at home together. It’s working out nicely. We’ve done baking, watching my high school play, and learning one of the song dances. I’m davening that it continues into elementary, middle, high,… Smile