How to Teach Your Kids to Show Gratitude

Moms do so much for their kids, yet we often feel so unappreciated.  In this episode, Kelsey shares a relatable story about how her homemade sourdough bread was received; and gives two practical tips for teaching your kids to show more gratitude.  Although children are developmentally going to be ego-centric at times, parents can intentionally model showing appreciation and cultivate a gratitude family culture.  If you enjoy this episode, don't forget to leave a review and share it with a mom friend! And of course, reach out to Kelsey to share your motherhood stories! 

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Episode Transcript

Kelsey (00:00):
As moms, we do so much for our families and our
children. I mean, we sacrificeour bodies just to bring these
children into existence.Oftentimes we give up careers,
we cook and clean constantly,but doesn't it just all feel
worth it when our kids come upto us and just give us a great

(00:25):
big hug and say, mom, I wanttoast. Anyone relate to this?
Just me?
Let me tell you a story aboutgratitude. Welcome to
motherhood, the best job in theworld. I'm your host, Kelsey
Redd, a stay at home mom justlike you, sharing relatable

(00:48):
stories and practical parentingtips so you can find ultimate
joy in mothering. So I got intomaking sourdough, I don't know,
a couple years ago, and I havefully committed now to the
sourdough lifestyle. If youknow, you know, because it is a

(01:09):
whole lifestyle.
So I make sourdough breadexclusively now at this point
for my family. We don't buybread from the store anymore. So
the other day I had my newestloaf out of the oven getting
ready to slice it up to makesome toast for my family and my
son, five years old at the timesays, mom, why do you always

(01:35):
make sourdough? It's sodisgusting. And I thought, oh,
really?
Oh my goodness. And I told him,Honey, someday you are going to
be in college on your own,living on your own for the first

(01:56):
time in your life, and you'regonna be buying store bought
bread, and you're gonna besaying, I cannot believe I was
so lucky when I was a kid thatmy mom made me sourdough bread
my whole life. I can't believe Ihave to shop for my own food
now, take care of myself. I justmiss my mom's homemade cooking.

(02:21):
And I just laughed.
I thought it was just too funnyto even take seriously, but it
does illustrate the point thatoftentimes our kids are very
egocentric, that's adevelopmental stage that
children go through, and theyonly think about what they want
and what benefits themselves.And if we don't proactively

(02:45):
teach kids how to be gratefuland how to show appreciation, we
might end up going off the railsin our own frustration and
resentment over all the thingswe do for our family that seems
to be unappreciated. So here area couple tips for you for

(03:05):
teaching your kids to be alittle more grateful. First of
all, we know that children learnmore by observing than anything
else. So we have to model thegratitude.
This is so easy to do and itjust requires us to put a

(03:26):
conscious effort into speakingthe thank yous and I really
appreciate that to all thepeople around us, to our
partners, if they do anythingkind for expressing that
appreciation in front of ourkids, to the grocery clerks, to
our waiters and waitresses thatserve us, anyone who you would

(03:47):
typically thank, make sure thatyour kids are seeing that. A lot
of times we're telling our kids,hey, say thank you. Hey, grandma
just gave you a gift, you needto say thank you. And of course
in private, we need to teachthem when are the appropriate
times to say thank you. But Ireally like to take the approach

(04:08):
of just modeling.
I'll typically give my kid aquick nudge or a little, you
know, whisper to them, Okay, saythank you. But I don't force it.
If they don't want to, becausemaybe they're not sure how this
social interaction is supposedto go, I just model it for them.
I say the words that I'm hopingthat they'll say. Thanks grandma

(04:29):
for this birthday gift, that wasso kind of you.
Or thanks dad for making dinner.It's so delicious. When it comes
to modeling, I love when I seeparents thanking their children.
This is such a high form ofrespect and it is so beautiful
to teach your kids how to berespectful by showing them the

(04:53):
respect that you want to see. Sowe can say thank you to our kids
for the things that they doaround the house.
We can model what it's like toappreciate them so they feel the
reciprocal appreciation for us.In this particular instance,
modeling gratitude by saying,thank you for helping me with

(05:15):
this chore. Thank you forputting your shoes on when I
asked you to. Thank you forhelping your sister. Thank you
for being such a good helper inour family.
Anytime we can find something tothank our children for, it just
gets them in the routine ofhearing that this is just
something we say in our family.This is a common occurrence. So

(05:38):
we don't have to constantly betelling them, don't forget to
say thank you, don't forget tosay thank you. They're gonna
know that they say thank youbecause they'll be so used to
it. My second tip is similar inthat it's creating a culture of
gratitude within the family.
This means you maybe just have agratitude moment in your day

(06:02):
where the whole family goesaround and shares things they're
grateful for. Or even in aspiritual or worship type
situation, you express gratitudeto the universe, to God, to your
higher power, for the blessingsthat you have in your life.
Anytime you're making anemphasis to show appreciation,
awe and gratitude for what youhave, you're developing this

(06:26):
skill in your children. Andremember, it is a skill that
they have to be taught. It's notsomething that's going to come
naturally to them.
Again, kids can be veryegocentric. So if we're not
teaching them the skill ofexpressing gratitude, they won't
just learn it on their own. Sothere you go, two tips that I

(06:48):
hope you can take away and startimplementing today to create a
little bit more gratitude inyour family culture. If you
enjoyed this episode, don'tforget to follow the show, leave
a review and share it with a momfriend. I'll see you next time
on Motherhood, the best job inthe world.