How To Raise A Respectful Child

Disclosure - This is a collaborative post - 

To socialise and connect with others, knowing how to be respectful is important. It can prevent miscommunication, help to make a good first impression and be a good member of society. We have teamed up with a boys pre prep school in London to share tips on how to raise a respectful child.

Open-Mindedness and Respecting The Beliefs Of Others

There are over 8 billion of us living on the planet. All different and unique in their own way. Teaching open-mindedness can help your child to grow up to be a respectful citizen, allowing them to connect and learn from others around the world. This is even more so important with globalisation making the world a much smaller place. This encompasses not only religious and cultural beliefs but personal beliefs too surrounding issues such as identity.

Manners

Using your manners in front of your child and reminding them to do the same can help it become second nature to them. This isn’t just ‘please’, ‘thank you’ and ‘excuse me’. You can teach your child etiquette too. 

Understanding Emotions

An emotionally intelligent child knows how to interact with others respectfully without hurting their feelings. By teaching children what the different emotions are and when they may be felt, they are able to behave appropriately in social situations. To teach this to your child, you can use flashcards with facial expressions and what they mean. 

Exercise Empathy

Without knowing how to be empathetic, emotional intelligence can be rendered useless. It can be hard to teach a child all the societal norms of what is acceptable and unacceptable which is where teaching empathy can help. By placing themselves in the shoes of others, your child can make their own judgements about what is appropriate and inappropriate.

Be Kind To Your Child

It’s contradictory to expect respect from your child and not do the same in return. To teach your child respect you must start with how you treat them. Be considerate and open to what they have to say. Being anything other than respectful to your child can teach them that behaving in this way is okay.

Managing Emotions

As humans, we are not cruel because we want to be. Often there is an underlying emotion that’s brought it out. This could be anger or hurt and whatever it is can be managed. By getting your child to use their knowledge of emotions, get them to label how they feel and ask themselves why. This will help them to identify what is wrong and create a logical solution for tackling it.

Michelle