Most youngsters of all ages and abilities can learn something about how to be helpful throughout the childhood years. The greatest benefit of learning to be helpful, in my eyes, is that it feels good to help out. And, of course the side effect is that it gets the job done.

Even if your kid has a learning disability that limits helping out much, by being the model of helping you are instilling an important attitude in your child.

Being helpful and cooperative go hand in hand to make light work of the situation and carry out a useful plan. And, I have found through personal experience over my whole life that when I am helpful others notice and begin trusting me with greater responsibility in jobs and tasks. And for children that would feed their self esteem.

When self esteem is nurtured self confidence grows and kids take the risks to reach out and try what is new to them. And, it could turn out that in reaching out in a new area they uncover talents no one knew they had.

Being helpful is a two way street. When kids practice being helpful, others are more likely to be helpful in return. That makes everyone involved have a smoother ride through life - giving some and getting some, as needed.

Also, being helpful to others such as teaching a younger sibling or classmate how to do a task or learn a skill does two things. It teaches someone else while reinforcing the skill or knowledge in the one teaching.

Helping out in this fashion is a wonderful way to cement basic knowledge that otherwise might need relearning or a lot of drills of repetition.

When kids see their elders helping in the community, they are likely to volunteer some time when adults themselves. In fact, any helpful skill a parent wants to instill in their kids is most easily done through their own examples.

When I was growing up I saw my mom cook to include an evening meal for a shut-in neighbor. This did not seem out of the ordinary to me and I learned that being helpful meant being charitable. This was a lesson that was not told to me, but one that made an indelible impression to this day.

If we can show our kids through our selfless examples that helping out makes the one helping feel good besides benefiting others we have done a big part in connecting in harmony to our world family!

Article by Susan Kramer

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