Teach Your Child to Respect Others

Respect is the number one complaint from parents today, the number one issue. Every parent wants their children to respect them and for good reason. Parents don’t create a child’s life, care for them, raise them, train them and love them unconditionally to not receive respect. Since the beginning of time respect has been at the forefront of every parent and child relationship. And I’m sure it will remain that way until the end of time.
As with so many issues and topics that have been included here on this web site, the number one way to teach your child respect is to set a good example. Respect begins with children seeing their parents offering respect, from respecting your partner, parents, friends, relatives and the children themselves, children will imitate their parents.
Just like when parents don’t have respect for the education system, neither will children. For important issues in life, show your children how important it is to respect them and they will respect them as well. Although there are some children who have very respectful parents yet they still need to be reminded that respect is an important issue, the following tips are here to help enforce your issue.
Preschool
Respect begins with good manners, which is a good place to start for young children. Saying please and thank you is just one form of being respectful to others. Children should learn to address older individuals with a ma’am or sir signature. “yes, ma’am, no sir’ EThis should be easy for your children to pick up if parents also use these choice words on a daily basis.
When a child is disrespectful, this is the perfect opportunity to talk to your child about this inappropriate behavior. As respect is about respecting other people (by not putting our hands on them or calling them names), respecting ourselves (by not hurting other people or by taking good care of ourselves), and respecting our belongings (taking good care of our possessions). Explain to your children that misbehavior is disrespect and that it is important to be respectful.
Main points to address:

• Teach young children good manners.
• Take the time to talk to your child about inappropriate behavior.

Grades K-3rd
Read books together that deal with issues of respect. Talk about the story with your child and ask questions regarding the characters and the general story. Do you think it is right the way the story turned out?
Be respectful to your children’s thoughts and feelings about respect. When they want to talk to you about a certain issue or their feelings about different things pay close attention to their feelings. Open yourself up honestly to your child’s thoughts and allow them to feel comfortable talking to you about things that hurt them or concern them.
Main points to address:

• Read books that deal with respect.
• Be respectful to your child’s thoughts and feelings.

Grades 4th-6th
Talk openly to your children about their feelings and opinions on respect. How do they feel about the subject? How do they feel when they are disrespected? Do they feel parents deserve respect from children?
While you are openly talking with your children build on their characteristics that are positive traits. “You are such a polite person, but I would really like to see you work on your attitude when you get angry, as this is a disrespectful trait.”
Explain to your children the basic rule of treating others the way you want to be treated. This common rule of thumb should be well preserved in your children. Equality is fairness, fairness is respect, and respect is a quality everyone should have.
Main points to address:

• Talk openly about respect and your child’s feelings.
• Teach the common, “treat others they way you want to be treated Etheory.