It's hard work growing up and nobody said it was easy to be
a good parent. Children need attention, love and guidance to thrive. A
child's emotional intelligence is key to their personal success and
happiness. Empathy is one of the most important qualities parents can help
their child develop and comes into being with cultivation, modeling and
experiencing empathy first hand.
Empathy is an emotional trait that determines so much of who
we are, how we think, and what we do. Children learn to practice empathy by
watching their parents and by experiencing it themselves--being treated well by
adults who respond warmly to their feelings.
Boys and girls develop differently in terms of acquiring and
being able to feel and respond with empathy. The ability to take others'
perspective begins rising steadily in girls at age 13, but boys don't begin
until age 15 to show gains in perspective taking.
Parents can play an important role to help instill empathy
in both their sons and daughters by encouraging their children to “walk in
another person’s shoes,” and there is no better way to think and feel yourself
into another person’s shoes than to step inside their story. Reading a person’s
story enlarges an individual’s experience of the world and stories stir our
emotions and make us feel. In attempting to understand, empathy counts for
much. And the literary experience becomes the passport to the entry into an
experience.
When you know a person’s story, your empathy for the other grows
and you begin to see that person as an individual. You begin to see that you
have more in common than you might have imagined and your differences begin to
fade in importance
The health and well being of the world depend on fathers and
mothers taking an active role in encouraging their children to develop empathy.
Their children and the world will be better for it.
I try
and never forget something Teddy Roosevelt said: “No one cares how much
you know, until they know how much you care”
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