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Teaching children to respect their parents is more complicated than teaching obedience. Obedience is basically the fulfillment of mandatory tasks by a child while honor must be freely given and felt from the heart and soul.
Consider the following ways which can help children to learn how to respect their parents.
ü Teach children to treat people with kindness
Most of the children do not see how their parents take care of them. They like being pampered by the family and sometimes take it for granted. You can actually help your children to see how respect works in some situations by using loving words with a smile such as "Since you gave your sandwich to the homeless man earlier, I made your favorite cookies because I want you to know that your kindness deserves acknowledgement" or "We will go to the mall on Sunday to buy your favorite toy because you help your sister to understand her homework".
ü Teach your children how to show empathy
Teach them how to be compassionate when it comes to other's feelings. Respect is gained when it is given to you. Any form of ability without respect is useless. You can only gain the true meaning of respect if the people see that you are trustworthy and committed to everything that you do.
ü Teach your child about morality
Judging between which is right and which is wrong is quite a hard task. Your child might either do something inappropriate things which they think is good or do something good which they think is wrong. You can read them stories like famously known as "The Ugly Duckling". Stories like this can teach them how to be a better person.
ü Be a role model
Parents are the first teachers of a child. They tend to observe and mimic your behavior. It goes like this.
There is a famous story about a grandma who was being rejected by her son and daughter-in-law.
This poor grandma has his one and only beloved son with a 5-year-old daughter. At 80 years old, she tends to forget a lot of things and act like a child who's always annoying you when she wants certain attention. The mother and father of the little girl decided to construct a small house in the backyard and make the old lady stay there. They regularly feed and sanitize her for a year
One day the son saw his lifeless mother on the floor with her last meal messed-up all over her body. After the morning and cremation of the grandma, the small house - should we say a prison - was immediately destroyed. While eating dinner, the little girl asked her parents "Mommy and Daddy why did you ruin grandma's house?" Where will you live when you get old?
The little girl's parents got so shocked that they burst out in tears for the rest of the night.
So take note that a child is like a blank white paper that needs to be drawn with beautiful things for them to learn how to do humanely deeds throughout their life. In that way, they can also gain respect from other people.
