how do you teach children to respect their grandparents
How do You Teach Children to Respect their Grandparents
In today's fast-paced world, where the influence of media and other factors affect your child, parents need to ensure that they teach their children to respect their grandparents. This Buzzle article lists some of the best ways in which you can teach your child to love and respect their grandparents and other elderly people.
What children need most are the essentials that grandparents provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies.
As a parent, it can be mortifying when your little one refuses to climb up on your parent's lap, or just screams and yells at them every time they show any affection towards him/her. Teaching the child to respect his or her grandparents can seem like an uphill task for most parents. This is because unlike a century before, most grandparents don't live with their grandchildren now, and often meet only on special occasions like Christmas or Thanksgiving.
Apart from the distance, there are various factors that affect the grandparent-grandchild relationship. Primary among them is popular media, which is filled with representations of smart-mouthed kids and their hapless parents. It is therefore little wonder that children tend to emulate these characteristics as well.
They often talk back, or resist co-operating with their grandparents. Any efforts by the grandparents to connect with the kids are met with friction and arguments with the parents, as well as grandparents. Unfortunately, most grandparents let the children get away with this. While they might be doing so out of the love for their grandchildren, this lenient behavior by the grandparents enforces the concept in the child's mind that he/she can get away with the bad behavior and disrespect towards his/her grandparents. So, how do you teach your child to respect their grandparents, or for that matter any elderly?
~ Rudolph Giuliani
Teaching Children to Respect their Grandparents
Increase Interaction with Grandparents
What You Can Do
✔ As a parent you need to ensure that you welcome the grandparents to spend time with their grandchildren.
✔ If you live near each other, then ensure frequent visits. If that is not possible, then talk on the phone or via video chats.
✔ Encourage older children to communicate with their grandparents via text messages on phones or emails as well.
✔ Include the grandparents in the child's activities and events at school.
✔ Set up dates where the grandparents can take the children out for movies, walks in the park, or ice cream.
Respect Your Parents
What You Can Do
✔ The next time your parents or in-laws offer an advice, just thank them nicely and say you will think about it.
✔ When you visit your parents with the kids, offer some services when you are there, like cleaning the dishes or raking the yard. The concern and love that you show for your parents and in-laws serves as an important lesson of love and care for the children.
✔ When talking about grandparents in front of the children, make sure you talk about them in a respectful, loving way. Even if your relationship with your parents and in-laws are strained, never vent your ire in front of the kids, as they are sure to do the same.
Share Personal Experiences and Common Interests
What You Can Do
✔ Ask kids to persuade their grandparents to tell them some stories or funny anecdotes about their childhood and other experiences. When grandparents narrate these stories, children realize that their grandparents had the same experiences that they are having now. This helps in bonding.
✔ Ask your parents to communicate the family history and traditions with the children.
✔ Play games, bake a dish, or go for movies. Sharing common interests helps in fostering a stronger and relaxed relationship.
Synch Everyone to Your Expectations
What You Can Do
✔ Ask your parents to step into a more authoritative role. They need to be assertive if the child is making a mistake. Being too soft on the grandkids can make the children question the grandparent's authority and disrespect them.
✔ Set clear expectations about respectful behavior towards grandparents. The kids may not be overtly enthusiastic about greeting their grandparents, especially when they are too strict, but it is important to be consistent about setting rules for what is right and what is not, when the children are with their grandparents. Make sure they greet or wish and shake hands with their grandparents. If they receive gifts, it is important to teach them to thank their grandparents for it.
✔ Being pampered by grandparents is a great feeling. Allow your children to enjoy this as well, but it is best to set a limit. Do not let the grandparents go overboard when showering the kids with love or gifts.