In many religious texts, children are taught and encouraged to respect their elders. This means mom, dad, teachers, aunties, uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents. However, with the changing times comes changing behaviour. Where seeing a teenager talk back to their headmistress used to be a rare occurrence, now it is becoming more apparent in our society. It doesn’t stop in schools though – some even show blatant disregard for their grandparents in plain view. What can we do to re-instill these values? What can we do to teach our children to respect their elders? We did a little digging on this and found a few tips we think will help!
Teaching Children How to Respect Their Elders 101
We get it – sometimes we don’t agree with our elders and their way of life, but this doesn’t mean it is right to be passive aggressive towards them or disrespect them entirely. Here are a few tips on how to teach children how to respect their elders.
Start Early
Instilling a positive outlook on elders early on can help reinforce this favor in children as they get older. In our opinion, the earlier the better!
Walk the Talk
Children have a tendency of mimicking their parents. If they see you, their parent or guardian, talking back to your parents or grandparents, or being disrespectful in other ways, they may adopt that behaviour. This is why it is so crucial to walk the talk when teaching your child how to respect their elders.
Explain to Children WHY it’s Important to Respect their Elders
Using the old, “Because I said so” explanation isn’t going to work here. Explaining to your children that grandma and grandpa have a lot more life experience which grants a different life perspective. Listening to different perspectives can help them have a more open mind when having to face challenges and other people later on in life!
Make Your Expectations Clear
Regularly telling your child you expect them to be respectful to their teacher, aunties, uncles, grandparents or, blessedly, their grandparents help instill this rule. Additionally, nipping problems in the bud early can help them course-correct and uphold this respect as they get older!
Teach Basic Manners
Chivalry is not dead. Encouraging helpful behaviour and teaching them basic manners such as “yes ma’am” or “yes sir” and “please” and “thank you” can. Help your child not only respect their elders, but it can help them go a long way in their career later on in life!
Promote Time Your Child Spends with Elders
Finding activities your child can do with their elders is important. Also, ensuring your child is with trusted elders is also important. Whether you leave them at grandma’s and grandpa’s house for a while or spend an afternoon with the whole family, getting your child to spend time with their elders is equally important.
Use Positive Reinforcement
Last, but certainly not least, praise your child when they are respectful of their elders! Make it a big deal that they helped grandma fold laundry, or that they said “please” and “thank you” when sitting down for a meal with the family. Praise can go a long way when teaching your children to respect their elders!
About Little Human Scholars School in PJ
Little Human Scholars is an all-in-one childcare solution. It is a preschool, playschool, kindergarten, nursery and full day daycare centre (with extended hours) located in the heart of PJ.
In fact, the location is one of the things which makes Little Human Scholars so sought after – it is conveniently nestled near Jalan Gasing, University hospital, PJ Old town, PJ New town, Jaya One, Jaya33, and the PJ IT Mall.
The best part is LHS has premiere services many other schools in PJ don’t offer such as full day daycare with extended hours, CCTV access for parents, and a nifty little phone app called Toddlytic which provides parents with automatic updates on their child’s development, behaviour and health checks.
With full-time guards always present at each of their locations, access to CCTV (which is in every room except the office, bathroom and kitchen areas), and very strict pick-up and drop-off rules, Little Human Scholars treats every child who walks into its hallways as one of their own children!
This place has it all: location, safety, health, IGSCE curriculum and play-based learning. What more could you ask for? Did I mention they also have transportation services and offer meal plans for students? It doesn’t get any better than that.
If you are interested in a tour of one of our centres (that’s right, there’s more than one), all you need to do is fill out the form here or call +6017-7303-025 and an LHS administrative staff will get back with you shortly!
Cheers,
Jana Moreno