Raising Polite Kids in a Rude World
Strength in Kindness
How can you explain what being polite is to a child?
Politeness is often confused with being timid or soft spoken. But that’s far from the truth.
Being polite is the reflection of quiet strength and confidence.
It’s a rapidly disappearing skill making it all the more urgent to teach the future generations lest they are deprived of it.
Can’t blame anyone for the diminishing value of politeness. It’s the changing nature of social interactions which has become digital, fast paced and impersonal.
WhatsApp and emails have shrunk the interactions to ‘TC’ and ‘CU’ and those infuriating emojis.
Freedom provided by the anonymity has made it easier to say the meanest and thoughtless things without a sense of responsibility or ownership or empathy.
And that’s one of the main reasons for conflicts and misunderstandings and distrust.
It’s become easier to do away with the traditional social niceties.
With such negative impacts of the lack of politeness, it becomes important to understand the true essence of what it truly is.
What is politeness?
First and foremost, it’s a reflection of your strength of character. That’s because being polite needs you to be confident, have empathy and show respect. It boosts your self-esteem and emanates positivity.
You share positive vibes with others which results in a healthier social environment around you.
Being polite also requires you to practice self-control, manage your emotions and exhibit a certain degree of emotional maturity.
Imagine trying to talk to an agitated person. If you too lose your cool, matters are certainly going to escalate.
Your talking politely to such a person is not you being scared or intimidated by the other person. Instead it’s you displaying your confidence in yourself and your ability to handle the situation calmly.
Being polite will certainly help you to have better interpersonal relations as others develop trust and confidence in you.
This is one of the reasons why children need to be taught about politeness.
Children lack the maturity to handle their emotions. They get excited and run wild with their feelings, whether happy or sad or angry.
For them to understand relationships, they’ve to first be taught about being respectful. Remember those magic words like ‘thank you’ and ‘please’ and ‘excuse me’?
Let them know how to use them. Let them see for themselves how powerful these words are.
Next focus on their emotional development. Help them to identify their emotions and work on them. Build on their strengths so they feel more confident about themselves.
Practice polite behaviour yourself so they can learn by watching you.
You can try using positive reinforcements to ensure polite behaviour. I started giving a gold star to the student who displayed polite behaviour beyond the class and very soon ran out of those stickers!
More importantly, children must be taught to be polite during online interactions. The anonymity and virtual distance in this space is no reason for being rude or impolite or disrespectful.
Let being polite be the new superpower.
It is
- impactful,
- has positive effects,
- can improve interpersonal relations, and
- develop your personality.
High time children learned to yield this power by watching you.
Hey, I’m Gomati Sekhar Ghosh, a writer, blogger. And also a veteran, educator and solopreneur.
I’m enjoying writing about the lessons learnt over the years in the different roles, be it in the uniform or corporate sector or classroom. I mostly explore themes based on parenting, children, and personal development.
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