This season is like none other for many parents around the world. Camping trips and day trips are cancelled, playdates are off, and thereโs not even sport on TV!
If your kids are a little disappointed, or even feeling anxious, youโre not alone. Itโs easy to focus on the negatives right now; weโre being constantly reminded of them every time we check in on social media, or the evening news.
Add to that the fact that tensions are running high and tempers are fraying as weโre all cooped up in our homes together.
Itโs up to us as parents to create a different narrative for our kids and to shift their focus, taking advantage of this time to strengthen relationships and teach them resilience.
Here are five ways to build their character through gratitude over the coming weeksโฆ
Start a Gratitude Journal
Get your kids to write down 5 things theyโre thankful for each day. This may take some practice and a little guidance to help them get started. Ask them โIf you woke up tomorrow and you only had the things you felt thankful for today, what would you have?โ Suddenly, they become aware that they woke up in a comfortable bed this morning, they had a hot shower, they had food to eat and family who loves them. With practice, theyโll find new things to be thankful for every day.
Gratitude Jars
Put a jar or a box on the table for each family member, along with some scrap paper and pencils. Each day, ask everyone to write little โgratitude notesโ to each other. โThanks for taking the bins out.โ โThanks for helping me build an epic fortress in Minecraft.โ โThanks for shooting hoops with me.โ When we feel โseen,โ our sense of wellbeing increases. It also builds harmony in the home, when everyoneโs deliberately looking for the good in each other.
Build Hope
As a family, write out a list of all the things you were grateful for before the restrictions. They might even be things you werenโt grateful for, but rather took for granted, until they werenโt there any moreโฆ Going to the movies, visiting grandparents, playdates, going to the footyโฆ Make a thorough checklist and then make a commitment to do all these things once theyโre available again, ticking them off one by one. It will give your kids something to look forward to, and try not to take them for granted any more as you tick them off, remembering what life was like without them.
Thank the Helpers
NBCโs Fred Rogers famously said: โWhen I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.โโ
Right now, thereโs plenty of distressing content on the news surrounding a certain pandemic, and itโs normal for kids to feel a bit anxious at times like this. Giving them a โheartโ project can help them feel like theyโre helping and it reminds them that there are โhelpersโ who are there to look after them and keep them safe. Perhaps they could write a thank you letter to the staff at a nearby hospital, or pool their pocket money to buy coffees for your local GPs. Drop off some baked goods at the police station, or draw a picture for a fire fighter.
Thereโs Always Something to be Thankful For
1 Thessalonians 8:13 reminds us to โgive thanks in everything.โ Everything? Yes, everything. Even the hard things. Weโre not asked to give thanks for everything. That would be mean. But itโs a promise that no matter what happens, thereโs always something to be thankful for.
It means that as parents, we need to watch how weโre talking. Are we constantly complaining about the restrictions in front of our kids? Or expressing our own fears and concerns in their ear shot? This is an opportunity to change our own mindsets, too. We need to remind ourselves and our kids of all the things we have to be thankful for, especially at times like this.
Annette Spurr is a spokesperson for Australiaโs National Day of Thanks. Visit Thanks.org.au to find out more.