How to Teach Patience to your Child
Patience is an important virtue that parents should teach their children. The best way to go about this is to remember your child is studying everything you do and if you choose to start yelling at a customer service representative or start road rage, your child is watching. Everyone has difficult days but if you have to vent, make sure your child isn’t watching you. This behavior can start children off on a road to being disrespectful. Next time your kids are being pokey, don’t yell because you are worried about being late. You might have to get up an hour earlier so everyone is on time for school or whatever event you are attending.
There are many things your child is going to have to learn patience for.
They are going to have to learn patience for taking their turn, going shopping with parents, and patience is required for friendship and basic interaction with other people. Kids that learn patience make great students. Here are some ideas for teaching your child patience.
It’s a good idea to make your child wait for a few minutes if they need you for something except if your potty training. Then you have to answer them immediately. You don’t want your child thinking they can get what they want immediately. Take small steps when teaching patience and extend the time from a few minutes to ten minutes as the child gets used to waiting.
Tell your child you are proud of them if they wait for you to help them with something. This helps your child understand that you are proud of them and kids love to please. Another idea is to work on a few projects together that need patience. If you decide to build a dollhouse with your daughter or put together a drone with your son, this requires time and patience to finish the project.
Parents use timers that have more than one child. Timers come in handy when you have more than one child and they want to watch a TV show. You can allow one child to watch their show and after 30 minutes, the other child can watch his or her show. This also helps kids learn how to tell time.
Keep your word! Don’t tell them you are going to the movies with them and change your mind because something that is not an emergency came up. This is how you build trust in your child and your child will know that their parents always will be there. This develops a sense of security.
No one is born with patience built in. Babies cry when they need something and they don’t know what patience is yet. This is something you have to teach them. Don’t expect your kids to wait for anything just because they are older, you still have to teach them that they have to wait. Everyone gets frustrated waiting for something in life, especially if they are in a hurry or live in a large city. The lines are going to be longer at certain times of the day. Grocery stores have put in computers for customers to check out themselves to help prevent frustration. Life has become so easy now with the click of the internet. People are used to instant gratification. Errands that took hours can only take a few minutes if you choose to shop online, register your car, buy insurance, order groceries etc. In order to teach patience, you have to practice patience. It’s been said that people that are patient have better relationships in life than people who don’t have patience. That makes sense because many small arguments are eliminated if you have patience with your spouse and your children. Tension is also eliminated with having patience.
Positive reinforcement is important when your kids are showing patience but parents also have to tell their kids when they are being impatient as well. Parents tend to have downtime with their phones and tune everything out for a while. Years ago parents talked on telephones installed in their homes and they overlooked the noise and tuned it out. Kids start acting up and feel neglected because no one is paying attention to them.
Not everyone in the world has patience and some kids are going to have problems with patience. Parents are going to become irritated at times with a child that keeps throwing tantrums. These feelings are perfectly normal so don’t give up on your child. Just remember how many people you notice on a daily basis that are throwing a fit in public or trying to cut people off on the road. Some people never learn patience or most likely never were taught patience and that’s why they end up going through a series of relationships and struggles in life.
When your kids seem too antsy. Just remind them that they have to grow up someday and it’s time they start now. If they choose not to listen tell them they will suffer some consequences and won’t get to go to the movie or the store shopping if they don’t stop being antsy. Start with a timeline in their lives when the time is right, and this usually will help them understand how to organize their time and how to become more patient.
Sometimes waiting in the exam office of a pediatrician can seem like it’s taking forever. Usually, there are toys and books in the exam room so if you feel your patience slipping read them a book, there’s usually gloves lying around in boxes and you can make some balloons out of them. The doctor and nurses don’t mind because they understand that waiting over an hour with small children can be exhausting. Time seems to pass quickly when you keep them busy and then you have also taught them patience.
All parents have thought at one time or another that there is not enough time in a day to get everything done. Patience gives people goals to work for because being rewarded with instant gratification becomes boring after awhile. Parents can also learn how to slow down and wait. If you are frustrated because time is going too slow and not getting you where you want to be, take a step back and see how far you have come. There are many mountains you have climbed and now you have that home you always wanted. Maybe your car is 5 years old but it’s another goal to work for. Remember your behavior reflects onto your children. You can work with your kids and develop patience together.
