Kids tend to be impatient generally. This is why you might notice some children snatching their toys from others or waiting in the kitchen while their cake is in the oven. But teaching your kids how to be patient is something that starts very early off in life. You must teach your kids the importance of being patient as a very crucial virtue they must have. In this guide, Matthew Teeple takes you through a few tips that can help you teach your child this.
How to Teach Kids Patience by Matthew Teeple
Here are a few tips that can help you teach patience to your kids.
1. Start Small
Start with the most basic things, like making your child wait a minute till you pour their milk into the cup. Or asking them to wait till you come out of the bathroom to answer them. When you do that, you will notice that your child will start learning patience at a very early age, which will help them understand how important this is too.
2. Model Patience
As a parent, one of the most important things you should do is model behavior you want them to learn. Your kids learn the most from you. So if you want to teach them certain ways of behaving, then the best way to do so is to do it yourself. How do you model patience? When stuck in traffic, try to be calm instead of angry. When waiting for food to be served at the restaurant, try being calm instead of irritable. Remember that your child is noticing how you behave.
3. Keep Expectations Reasonable
Your kid is really young. They are just starting with learning things in life. Matthew Teeple says that to teach them patience, you must keep expectations very reasonable right from the start. For example, you should not expect them to wait for an hour in line before they get to where they want. They are likely to lose their calm, making you think they aren’t learning. Understand that they will only build their way up one step at a time. You need to take them through that and watch how they build up.
4. Develop Waiting Strategies
As a parent, you need to walk your child through things so that they understand better what is required of them. Matthew Teeple says that developing waiting strategies can help them cope better. So when you are waiting somewhere with your child, get them busy doing something so they can use their time more productively. Maybe you could read to them or maybe even sing a song. It depends entirely on what works for them.
5. Make Them Learn Self Control
Teach your children how to control their anger when they lose their calm. This is important to help them become self-regulatory.
Final Words by Matthew Teeple
With these valuable tips by Matthew Teeple on making your child learn patience, you will notice changes in your child’s behavior slowly.
