Being a parent to your wonderful children gives you the responsibility of raising them well in this world. Your responsibility doesn’t stop with putting food on the table, providing them with clothes, and giving a roof over their heads. You also need to teach them how to be good people by donating and giving back. This will help make the world a better place and allow their generation to be more hopeful.
Donating to charities and giving back to those in need will always be a great way to show appreciation and make others feel good. Even if there’s nothing they’ll receive in return, giving back is about prioritizing others’ needs more than themselves.
To help make the world an amazing place, below are some ways you can teach your children to donate and give back.
Start a Donation Drive
One of the first things you can do is to start a donation drive. This way, you can encourage everyone in your community to donate their unused but usable items to charity. Or you can raise awareness of a particular need in your community, which families can meet by making a small donation of a particular item.
You can begin by learning first how to start a donation drive and look for a specific charity you wish to donate to. As soon as you start accepting donations, you can encourage your children to help receive donations and help organize everything. They’d be surprised by how many people would like to help certain charities and would take inspiration from them.
It’d also be great if you could tag your children along as you donate them to charities so they can quickly look at who they’re helping and be more motivated to make their lives better. For example, maybe they could meet the family who needs diapers or the homeless men who need warm socks for the winter.
Lead By Example
Leading by example is the best way to teach your children to donate and give back. Your children might not be encouraged to be good if they can’t see anyone doing it. While you might expose them to various communities, it’ll be great if they can see it at home and from people they know.
You can begin by donating your personal items, along with giving back to the community and those people who need them, without showing any signs of frustration or inconvenience. As you show your kids how happy you are with what you do and how it affects the people around you, they might be inspired to do the same.
For example, your children might see you making a meal to take to a family who has just had a new baby, moved to a new home, or suffered a loss. You can volunteer at your child’s school or at your church. Last year, I spent a couple hours every second week cleaning my daughter’s high school, so my kids were aware of the work that it takes to maintain the school and how much effort parents put into the school.
Begin at Home
Along with leading by example, it’ll be great if you could begin those small practices at home. This way, they don’t have to act too grand and feel overwhelmed, as they can start with small things.
First, you can start teaching them to do chores without any complaints, helping their siblings with their assignments, cooking for the family, tending the garden, or just aim to help with household chores whole-heartedly as they’d like to help their parents or just make their home a better place to live in.
As you allow your child to be responsible and caring for their home, you can slowly introduce it to the outside. Find ways to help in your community or parish. For example, many parishes have need of volunteers to clean on specific days, or to maintain the garden in the summer, or to work on minor repairs in the spring or fall.
Do Things as a Family
A great way to encourage your child to give back and donate is to do things as a family. This will help them establish a routine, which they’ll incorporate into their lives. You can host donation drives as a family and show good acts to other people even if no one asks them to. You can even clean up your table after dining out to help make the restaurant’s work easier or do volunteer work for the neighborhood as a family. It’ll be a great way to set an example for your kids and community.
Find Volunteer Opportunities for Kids
It’d be great if you could ask your children if they agree with volunteering for those who need extra hands. This way, they can help others and allow them to live a much more comfortable life, as each day is extra hard on them.
You can begin by looking for volunteer opportunities for kids they could participate in and let them choose which one they’d like to do. This could be tutoring or helping at an animal shelter and allowing them to expose their eyes to the reality of life. Think of your child’s gifts or strengths and what they enjoy doing, then look for ways they can share those gifts and passions with others.
Be a Good Neighbor
If you’re in a good relationship with your neighbor or know them well, it’ll be great if you could teach your children to help them out. Before you let your children help your neighbor, chat with the neighbor about what you’re trying to teach and what they could do.
Children could mow their neighbor’s lawn when they’re out on a long vacation, give some extra food to the neighbors, or even help clean the gutter of an elderly’s home to prepare for winter. Books like Little Critter: Just Critters Who Care by Mercer Mayer can help inspire your kids with ideas and ways to get involved in their neighbourhood. Just ensure that you let your children do light work so they can carry themselves.
Start a Three-Part Piggy Bank
Apart from letting your children volunteer and donate their old clothes and toys, you can teach them to donate some of their money to charities as well. This way, they can be more responsible about handling their finances while ensuring they follow a good deed out of every penny they earn. You can begin by creating a three-part piggy bank, where they’ll part their money for spending, saving, and charity.
Create a Monthly Giving Schedule
A great way to instill donating to charity and giving back to your children is by creating a monthly giving schedule for your family. With this, you’ll choose 12 charities that you’d like to give back to and donate to one every month. It could be your family routine every year, or you can choose to look for new charities to donate to after every year. This way, your children will immediately know it’s that time of the month wherein you do charity work and incorporate that routine as they grow older.
Always Educate with Every Opportunity
Wherever you’re with your children, always take the opportunity to educate them as much as possible. It could be simply telling them to open the door for other people, picking up what people accidentally lose on the floor, and more. Those simple gestures can help your children to grow better and be better people in the world. It doesn’t always have to be grand, as every small act matters.
Teaching your child to donate and give back would surely positively impact the world. As you start at home, you can slowly spread it out to the public and let the world benefit from the good deeds that your child will bring. With proper education and leading by example, your children will eventually adapt to their lifestyle and do those practices out of habit.
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