Welcome to Virtue Wednesday! Today I will talk about Helping Around the House.
Helpfulness is a wonderful virtue that shows others that you care for them, have compassion and are there for them.
As parents we constantly help and assist our children from the time they are born and beyond. As parents we don’t think twice when we help our children. And this is the attitude we would want out children to have as well: helping others without hesitation, without asking for anything in exchange.
Helping around the house is the first step towards developing the virtue of helpfulness in general. It starts with simple: “Give mommy the…, please” and continues with cleaning up games, well into the assigning the chores.
Here are some tips on how to invite your child to help at home:
1. Praise the virtue: every time your child hands you something, praise the virtue of helpfulness: “Thank you, you are so helpful!”
2. Voice the action: when the child hands you something or puts something away, talk about it: “That’s right, we put it right here!” or “Yes, you give it to mommy!”
3. Suggest simple tasks that assist you in doing something: toss the salad, pass you the cloth for wiping dust, help you pour water into the bucket, water the flowers etc. Children enjoy real life activities
and respond much better to them.
4. For older children assign simple chores and reward them for doing thorough and good job with simple tokens of appreciation (e.g. stickers that they can proudly display on the wall of their bedroom).
5. Lead by your own example: if you are a compassionate and helpful person and when helping others you involve your children in a process, chances are quite high that your child will naturally pick up.
6. Talk about helpfulness with your child. Discuss the benefits of being helpful and what happens if no one helps anyone.
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How do you nurture helpfulness in your household? Share your tips – I’d love to read about them!
Lisa Nelson
I love this article. What great suggestions! I like when you say, lead by example. That is the absolute best way to teach our children. You can say anything you want – but when they see you doing it – then it really clicks.
I also like how you divide up the younger children and the other children . I also believe that the older children should do some chores around the house – but they are children after all. After the chores are done, they should be allowed to play and explore.
Varya
I’m glad you like it. I never claim to have the answers to anything – after all, we, parents, are also learning as the children grown. These are my thoughts, ideas and personal experience (what is working or worked for us when teaching virtues to our child) that I share. If you have some tips as well or would like to write a guest post – you are mostly welcome! Thank you for reading and commenting!