Encouraging Manners, Acts of Kindness and Helping at Home

Looking for a way to get rid of  complaining in your home?  “But everyone else has one!” “You never let me go anywhere!”  “I’m bored!”  “There’s nothing to do!” Try encouraging helping others, volunteering and a few “Acts of Kindness!”  It’s helped with the complaining in the home I grew up in… and now I’m trying it in my own family!

Often the root of the problem is a lack of thankfulness and a lack of appreciation for all that we have. In fact, we all need to stop complaining about what we don’t have and start being thankful for what we do have!

One of the best ways to help remind our families of how much they have to be thankful for is by introducing them to people who have much less than we do – both in our communities and around the world. It’s amazing. Once we start thinking about helping others instead of only ourselves, our perspective on what is truly important changes. We become a lot less self-centered and are able to think about others first.

There are many places where we can introduce our children to helping: including at home, in our community and in our world.

Helping at Home

Help your children think up ways they can help Mommy or Daddy—and make them feel special! They can clean up their toys off the driveway or make Daddy his favourite dessert. Children at a young age love to help with the household chores. Provide them with their own smaller broom to help sweep. Show them how to load the dishwasher. Inspire your children to show appreciation to Grandma & Grandpa by sending them “thank you” letters after receiving a gift.

Helping in the Community

This can start simply with acts of kindness to next door neighbours. Some ideas include:

• Taking cookies to the new neighbours or chicken soup to someone who just got out of the hospital. 
• Inviting the new child and his family from your soccer team over for lunch. 
• Saying hello to the neighbour walking down the street. 
• Taking in someone else’s trash barrels from the curb. 
• Picking up trash that isn’t yours. 

Other community volunteer ideas include:

• Volunteering at the Food Bank in your community. 
• Being a Big Brother or Big Sister. 
• Helping out at the Human Society.
• Visiting shut-ins during the holidays and supplying the cookies.

My mother used to take our family to visit nursing homes. She encouraged us to just sit and learn to listen to an elderly person—even if we couldn’t understand what they were saying. When we rubbed cream on their hands they were thrilled for the loving touch. We weren’t that good at playing the piano, but the seniors didn’t care. They clapped and sang along. I’ll never forget one elderly lady who looked very weak, yet when my sisters and I started to sing, she slowly unfurled, sat up straight and burst into a brilliant smile (with no teeth!) 

Introduce your children to leaders in the community who are serving on town council, the police force, school board, and fire fighters. Many of these serve behind the scenes and don’t get a lot of public recognition for what they do. Maybe you could ask one of the public leaders if one of your children could tag along as an “apprentice” for the day and learn.

Teach your children to be generous and thoughtful by showing them opportunities to help. Show them how to share their toys with a friend.  Encourage them to donate a portion of their allowance to a children's charity. Soon generosity and appreciation will become part of their lives.

Helping in Our World

Sometimes it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the profound needs of the world—poverty, orphans, catastrophes like floods and famine—and we think, “There’s nothing I can do!” 

Start off with something small.  Participate by raising money for a favourite charity or take part as a family in helping the organization raise funds.  Donate food to a local foodbank or help out if your children are old enough.

Many charities send “shoeboxes” filled with exciting little treasures for the holidays.  another idea is to sponsor the education, food and housing for a needy child for a dollar a day. Help your child find a “cause” that he can take on as his own and pray and raise money for. 

Your children will see that they don’t need the latest X-Box or iPod to be happy, nor the latest designer jeans. They’ll be planning their next volunteer activity or sending letters to the child the family has sponsored.

So say “good-bye” to complaining and say “hello!” to our more grateful, generous and happy children!

Suggested Resources for Acts of Kindness and Service

• World Vision Child Sponsorship www.worldvision.ca
• www.actsofkindness.org