Putting Gratitude To The Forefront
With the school closed for the last few months, our children have spent most of their days at home attending online classes, meeting deadlines and preparing for assessments. It certainly keeps our children's minds active and provides some form of much-needed normality amidst our current abnormal circumstances.
My 13 years old son had just completed one of his two academic online courses which lasted six weeks. He has a month before the second course begins. When he told me that he was exhausted from that session, I took it as a reminder that the well-being of our children is far more important than excelling academically, especially at the time of crisis like this.
As parents, we are often swamped with our daily routines, work or unexpected events. The sign of our children’s well-being can easily slip our attention. The pressure and demands of school work do wear them down and we need to be more conscious of the signs of fatigue, low in motivation, lack of focus and so on.
To counteract this, I racked my brain over what I could do to lift my son’s spirits and rekindle his motivation. So, over dinner, I asked him what he would like to do this month that is not school-related. Among the list that includes longer gaming time and waking up half an hour later than usual, my attention was drawn to this one: "I want to learn more about COVID19 and how people around the world are coping with the crisis." He went on to ask, "How do people cope with the news every day or the death toll and not being able to see their loved one for the last time? It must be so hard. I wish I could do something to lift their spirits up."
That same evening, he came up with an idea: he would share how he is coping during this self-isolation time and how he keeps himself upbeat when he feels down by starting a gratitude challenge. He recognised the power of gratitude and how it can lift us up when in difficult times. By expressing appreciation first thing in the morning to the smallest things like, "Thank you for the fresh air” or “I am grateful for a good night sleep" really set the tone for the day ahead for him.
My son taught me a valuable lesson. Practising gratitude gives us perspective, gives us hope, gives us reasons to believe that not everything is black or white, not everything is good or bad, but everything has a flip side. Even in the worst-case scenario, we can always look for silver linings because every cloud has one if not two.
For our children to have the vision to dream, they need to put gratitude at the forefront. They need to give thanks and show their appreciation for the abundance in their lives, despite the challenges. It is our responsibility as parents to nurture and empower our children with the gift of gratitude.
Please join my son and me for this Gratitude Challenge in April and beyond by following us on Instagram and :
Let's share lights and gratitude to one another. Share your gratitude for the day with us.
Hi I’m Sandy!
As a positive parenting coach and Language specialist, my parenting workshops focus on helping parents to discover and develop the character strengths in their children. My 'How to Raise a Bilingual Child' course focus on helping parents to create a positive language learning environment at home.
Be a Positive Strengths-based Parent.
