Parenting Tip #32 Thank You!

The music teacher at my children’s school once showed me a piece of paper he had folded up in his wallet. It was a thank you note from one of his students many years ago. He said he kept it so that on the “bad days” it can remind him why it was he became a teacher.
How can we teach gratitude to our children? Probably the best way is to model it for them. Our children need to hear us say thank you. Around the home we can say thank you to children who quickly obey, or do their chores, or are kind to a sibling. They can hear us say it to our husbands. Outside the home they can hear us say it in the grocery store, in the library, at school, Church, everywhere.
Besides saying “thank you”, how else can we teach our children to express gratitude--by writing down our thanks on paper. When expressing thanks, we should be specific. A daughter-in-law wrote me a wonderful note of thanks and listed all the things she had noticed I had done and prepared for their family when they visited us. That meant a lot to me to see that she had noticed and appreciated my efforts.

You can even teach your baby/toddler to say thank you by signing the words. http://www.lifeprint.com/

My grandmother was from Sweden and as a child we liked to say “Tack så mycket”. Want to say thank you in a different language? Check out this site: http://www.drrobynsilverman.com/parenting-tips/teaching-children-to-say-thank-you-in-different-languages/

Go to this link for a wonderful true experience of how a thank you note impacted someone’s life. http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=11adea00a8bf6210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Share with us ways you have taught your child to express thanks. And, last, but not least-- THANK YOU for reading my blog!