Positive is one of the most beautiful things a person can be. Positivity gives you a better outlook on life, allows you to see the light in dark times, and can be contagious. Teaching your child to have a positive mindset can help them become a more positive adult. This can help them in a variety of situations and allow them to feel happier overall in life.
At Yellow Brick Road Early Childhood Development Center, we run all of our childcare programs with a positive outlook and a cheerful manner. Your child will learn and grow in our encouraging and nurturing environment that helps them develop new skills and a love for learning.
In this blog, we wanted to give parents some advice on how to teach your kiddos to have a positive mindset. While it can be easy to feel negative sometimes, having an overall positive outlook can be extremely beneficial for your child now and in the future. Read on to learn how to teach your child to live with positivity!
Be Grateful
It can be easy to focus on the negative aspects of our lives. Even children can focus on the negative and the bad, whether it is that a friend has a cooler toy than them or that someone is better at jumping rope. Try to make gratefulness a part of your daily routine. Talk with your child about what you are grateful for and ask them what they are grateful for. Talk about how lucky you are to have what you have. When they complain about not having a new toy like their classmate, talk about the things they do have.
Another great way to be grateful is to focus on the positive throughout the day. If you are waiting in line at an ice cream shop, instead of complaining about the line, tell your child that you are grateful for the beautiful weather. When you talk about what you are appreciative of, it is easier to see the positive in every situation.
Make Family Talk Positive
No matter what your family time looks like, try to make the communication as positive as possible. If you all eat dinner together, make this a time when you all talk as a family and share about your day. When you ask about your children’s day, what they learned, and anything notable that happened, you can put a positive twist on it by asking “what is one happy or positive that happened today?” When you ask this daily, your children will begin to think about it throughout the day. They will want to make sure they have an answer! Your child will go through their day looking for positive and happy moments, which in turn helps them focus on the positive stuff.
Stop Complaining
Complaining is something we are all guilty of. Constantly complaining can lead us to focus on the negative and make it harder for us to stick to that positive mindset. While everyone needs to vent from time to time, there is a difference between venting to get something off our mind and talk about our feelings, and complaining just to complain. Teaching your child to not complain can be a challenge. Children love to complain after all.
If your child is constantly complaining, there are some things you can try. Start by acknowledging their feelings and letting them know that it is okay to feel that way. Then encourage them to work on their problem-solving skills. Ask them what they should do next time so they don’t feel this way. If they complain that they are hot while at the park, ask them what they think they should do. When you make your child think for themselves and work to solve their own issues, it can help them take action rather and simply complain. In a future blog, we will go over some more tips to help your child stop complaining, but this is a good starting point.
Allow Them to Vent
While staying positive and focusing on the good can help make your kiddo happier and help them grow into a happy adult, sometimes it is hard to stay positive and it is important to let your child know that is okay. When people try to stay positive through everything, it can make it harder for them to acknowledge their true feelings and deal with them in a positive way.
This is especially important when you have young children. Young kids are already trying to learn a lot about emotions and feelings. They are learning about those feelings, how to express them, and a proper and healthy way to deal with them. When you force your child to stay positive when they are feeling anything but positive, it can make it hard for them to truly understand how they are feeling and how to express it. This is basically the same concept as bottling emotions, which is not healthy and never productive. Allow your child to vent when they need to and help them through those emotions so that once they feel better, they can focus on the good again.
Help Them See The Positive
There are times when it is hard to see the positive. But by working to see the positive, it becomes easier to focus on the good instead of the bad. Help your child see the positive in hard situations. There is generally at least one good thing that comes out of most situations, even if it is not the outcome they were hoping for. If they are bummed because they wanted to go to the park but it started raining, remind them that now you can do something fun inside. If they are upset because someone at the playground was mean to them, remind them that because of that they started playing with another child who is now their friend.
When you help your child see the positive in a bad situation, they will begin to get better at seeing the good on their own. This is a handy skill to have as a child and an adult. We all experience hard times but when we can see the positive in those times, it is much easier to get through them.
Be a Role Model
As we have mentioned in numerous blogs before, your kids learn a lot by watching you. If you want your child to be more positive and have a positive outlook on life, you have to demonstrate that. Even when you are overly stressed, try to stay positive and show them that you can find the positive in hard situations too. But at the same time, show them that it is okay to feel those other emotions as long as you don’t let them consume you.
Let them know that you are stressed about work but that you are glad to have a job that challenges you. Let them know that you are frustrated that the traffic is so bad but make it a positive situation by playing a game with them or singing goofy songs with them at the top of your lungs as you sit in traffic. By showing them that you can make bad situations good and focus on the positive, you will help them do the same.
Positivity is something that can be hard to stick with at times, but when you start practicing it with your child at a young age, they will have an easier time staying positive as they grow older.
At Yellow Brick Road Early Childhood Development Center, we work hard to create a fun, happy, and positive environment for our little students! Learn more about our programs and contact us today. We have locations in Plymouth, Minnetonka, Eden Prairie, and Maple Grove, allowing you to find a location near you!