According to the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, Empathy is the ability to identify with someone and share their feelings, and although it is usually an innate ability in people, we need to encourage and encourage it in children from an early age.
With it, they will not only have better relationships with their family, friends and partners, but they will also be more friendly and respectful people. We share some tips to encourage empathy at home and raise children who care for others.
Let's start with our example
The first step in teaching our children any value or life lesson is the most basic of all: let's do it too. So To start teaching about empathy, we must be empathic with them.
In Babies and more If you are empathic with your children, they will be with others Remember that children imitate and do what they observe. Therefore, always keep in mind that everything we do is an example for them, and so, in addition to educating them, we can take the opportunity to work on improving certain aspects of ourselves.
And how can we be an example for them? Being empathetic with the people around us. Children will observe our attitude, as well as the treatment and the way in which we talk to others. If we see someone going through a difficult time or we have different opinions, we must show this quality in front of them, so that they understand how relationships between people work.
But without a doubt, the best first step to teach them about empathy, is being empathic with our children, putting ourselves in their place to understand them, always treating them with respect and helping them to better understand their emotions, which leads us to the next step.
Help them recognize their emotions
Although children from an early age are empathic and easily perceive the emotions of others, it is not easy for them to express or understand their own emotions. And in order to develop empathy and understand other people's emotions, it is important first to know how to identify and know your own.
Our work as parents and one of the most important parts of parenting during these early years, is the allow them to express their emotions, listen to them with respect and attention, and help them identify them, naming them and understanding how and why they feel them.
In Babies and more, seven keys to prevent our children from being emotionally illiterateTo help them understand a little better all that they feel, you can, for example, vocalize your emotions, telling your children "I feel angry" or "I am sad", so that they can identify in a clearer way (and not just explaining with words or definitions) what they feel in certain situations.
Once they can recognize those emotions in themselves, they will be able to recognize them and identify them also in others, making them more empathetic with the people around them.
Talk to them about diversity
We live in a world where there are many differences, from religious to cultural, and personally, I consider that something essential to be able to teach empathy and be empathic is to know and respect all these differences.
In Babies and more How to educate our children in peace and non-violence In the case of our children, we must show you from an early age the great diversity that exists in the world, whether speaking to them about other cultures and other ways of thinking, as well as explaining to them about physical differences in appearance or abilities.
Another way to show our children about the diversity that exists is by supporting us with educational or inclusive books, movies or television programs. And above all, teaching them to respect and not to make fun of other people for being different from them.
Make empathy a family activity
Finally, activate empathy within your family. This is related to what I mentioned at the beginning about educating by example, but now, also involving them, taking them by the hand.
For example, they can talk every day about the good things they did for other people. Or maybe, one day they have a family outing or outing, approach someone who is alone or in need of help, to see if there is anything they can help. Also, let's not forget to recognize when our children perform acts of empathy, however small or simple they may be.
With these tips, but especially with our example, love and respect, we can foster empathy in children, so that they too are people who care for others, something that will always be positive and that is very necessary for the world and the situations that we live.
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