Children are often asked to let go- forgive their siblings for taking their toy or a friend for fighting with them. But as a parent, when you ask your child to forgive, do they understand what they are doing, or are they simply just repeating what you say? Forgiveness is one of your child’s most crucial virtues if you want your child to become a better person. In this guide, Matthew Teeple takes you through a few tips that can help you teach your child how to forgive.
How to Teach Your Child Forgiveness by Matthew Teeple
Here are a few ways to teach your child how to forgive others.
1. Don’t Force It
When you force your child to forgive someone, they don’t truly understand the essence of what they are doing. In fact, they forgive only because you tell them to. Instead, a better way is to walk them through the whole process. First, understand why they are feeling a certain way and then help them process their emotions much better. When you do that, your child will learn how to understand what they are feeling and then let go and forgive for themselves.
2. Teach Perspective
When trying to process emotions, the first step is to teach your child how to see things from all perspectives. Matthew Teeple says when you teach your children that, it becomes much easier for them to know the whole story and forgive others.
3. Start Small
Start by teaching them how to forgive others for very small things. That is when they will move on to learn more about forgiveness. Say if another child takes their toy, teach them how to forgive them and not fight them. That way, they will slowly understand how they can forgive, and that is when they will further move on towards bigger things in life too.
4. Model Behavior
Your child is learning from the way that they see you behave. To teach your child how to forgive, model the right behavior. When someone hurts you, learn how to forgive and let go. Tell your child stories about how you forgave people. When you do that, your child learns from you; that way, they can put things in context too. This is important to help them process things much better. You walk them through the entire process that way.
5. Make them Write
Sometimes, when people can’t express their feelings, they feel bitter. If you feel like your child isn’t as expressive as they should be, make them start writing. When they do that, it will become easier for them to process their emotions, making forgiving much easier. Matthew Teeple says that the first step in forgiving is to learn how to process the information first.
Final Words by Matthew Teeple
Forgiveness is one of the most crucial virtues everyone should have. As a parent, start teaching your children young. With these actionable tips by Matthew Teeple, you are more likely to see changes in your child’s behavior very early on.