Why It’s Important To Model Gratitude To Kids

Your kids look up to you for everything. You aren’t just giving them a home and food and safety by being their parent, you’re also teaching them how to be a strong and caring adult. Your kids are learning about emotions, and appropriate reactions, and how to handle tough times, all from your example.

We talk a lot about modeling how to handle anger, modeling effective forgiveness, and setting the kind of example you want your kids to follow as adults.

But we don’t often talk about how important it is to model positive emotions at the same time.

Well, gratitude is one of the most important emotions for you to show your kids, and one of the most important things you can encourage in your little ones. Here’s why.

Studies Show Parent’s Don’t Teach Gratitude Enough

One of the biggest reasons it’s important to start modeling gratitude more for our kids is that we know that kids don’t see enough of this emotion. Not modeling gratitude can often make your kids feel like you aren’t grateful for their efforts, or even that you aren’t grateful for them.

But your kids also need you to model gratitude to know how to express it themselves. Modeling gratitude will help your kids learn how to be grateful to you, and how to express that emotion in positive and productive ways.

Plus, being grateful will help your kids express themselves at school, and will help them show
appreciation for their friends, teachers, and the other important people in their lives.

But without a good example, your kids might struggle with how to show appreciation, or even knowing that gratitude is an important emotion to share.

Gratitude Is Linked To Happiness, Even In Kids

Another huge reason we need to model gratitude more often is that gratitude has a huge connection to positive mental health. Being able to feel grateful isn’t just important for social interactions. It’s also important for helping your children recognize what’s good in their lives and feel positive about the world.

Kids as young as 5 years old have been shown to be happier and more positive when they are more grateful, and less content when they don’t score as well on measures of gratitude.

Gratitude Can Help Your Child Behave

Many times parents worry about showing too much gratitude to kids making them inflate their self-worth and become ‘bratty’ or causing your kids to overestimate their abilities.

The truth is that being realistically grateful isn’t ever bad for your kids. They are more likely to be well-behaved and to understand how hard you work for them if you’ve modeled gratitude.

That’s because your kids will be better at spotting things that they might be grateful for if they’ve seen you do the same thing.

Conclusion

While gratitude can be one of the most difficult emotions to model in the moment, it’s incredibly important. Showing your kids gratitude is a great way to start, but it’s also important to model gratitude in other relationships and with other adults and people in your lives.

There’s no such thing as too much gratitude when it comes to modeling for your kids. Be realistic and honest, but don’t be afraid to tell people how you’re feeling when they’ve helped you.