It is natural for parents to be proud of their children. Often at parties, you’ll hear phrases like “My child was at the top of their class!” or “My child received an award!”. There’s also a good chance that you’ve shown how proud you are of your child in some form or another. However proud you are as a parent, humility is also something you would want to inculcate in them. Knowing how to help your child develop humility may not only improve how well they relate to others but also how self-assured they are with their achievements — no matter how big or small. Continue reading to learn more.
Be A Good Role Model
Younger children often learn through imitating, which is why it’s important that you be a good role model for them. Being consistently humble, you are unconsciouly teaching them that they should follow in your footsteps.
For example, when you’re talking to family or friends, don’t excessively brag about your achievements to the point that you’re putting others’ achievements down. This shows your child that while being proud of oneself is a positive thing, it’s also a show of good character to praise others and be genuinely proud and happy for them.
Encourage Them to Admit Their Faults
Admitting mistakes is one of the key ingredients to humility. When your child is able to take responsibility and ownership of their faults, this means that they’re receptive to criticism. This helps them listen to listen to what other people have to say, instead of simply defending their actions as right all the time.
For example, when they’ve hurt their siblings or friends with their words, you have to communicate to them that harmful and damaging language is not tolerated. Doing this shows them that they can’t just say whatever makes them feel good at the moment. Humility is ultimately seeing yourself from others’ points of view as well as making decisions and saying things that are considerate of the other person.
Don’t Put Them Down
Oftentimes humility is associated with weakness and lack of power, but this should not be the case. Instead, humility comes hand-in-hand with self-confidence — the ability to admit that you’re not the best and that you still have much to learn is what drives you to learn from others and develop a strong sense of the self.
Keeping this in mind, you have to make sure that you don’t put your child down. For example, when they get low grades on a test, don’t use derogatory words such as “You don’t know anything” or “Other kids are smarter than you”.
Instead, what you may want to do is guide them through the lapses they made and teach them how they can improve upon them in the future.
Build Their Self-Esteem
Contrary to popular belief, egotistic individuals or people that are too critical about others’ work actually have a low sense of self-esteem. This might be traced back to their formative years, where they were not taught properly about humility and its relation to self-esteem.
You can build your child’s self-esteem in a number of ways. You can enroll them in workshops or classes that can help build their skills and hobbies further. Aside from that, it’s also a good habit to constantly show your children kindness and focus on their strengths instead of their weaknesses.
Teach Them to Show Compassion
Finally, you also shouldn’t forget to teach your child to be compassionate. Compassion helps them understand that there are much greater things outside of their own bubble — that there are people who don’t have access to the same resources that they do.
Whenever there’s an opportunity where your child can share or donate, encourage them to do it. This trait can be carried on into their adult life where they’re able to be giving and show empathy and understanding about the situation of less-fortunate individuals.
Key Takeaway
To learn how to help your child develop humility, you have to start with small acts. Being humble is not a one-time thing, but a culmination of virtuous acts that are made possible by being a good role model to your child, helping them have confidence, teaching them to be compassionate, and showing them kindness.
Developing humility takes time, but the more consistently that you keep these tips in mind, the better that your child can fully integrate them into their practices.
