How to Nurture Family Acceptance?
Acceptance refers to valuing differences. It refers to being tolerant, flexible, and open-minded. It involves knowing how to compromise, understanding that everyone commits mistakes and always being ready to forgive. Acceptance does not involve agreeing every time with your family members, it is completely alright to disagree but it means believing that the family member is trying to do the right thing. Acceptance keeps the family aura positive and healthy.
A sense of belonging or acceptance in a family is a two-way process. It is about understanding the rights and the needs of the kids, about protecting and caring for the child. It is also about permitting the kid to have a chance to express his creativity and personal agency, care, and love for others, take responsibilities, share in group celebrations and fulfill the roles. If the kids know that they are accepted in the family, they develop a sense of belonging with the family which makes them feel happy and they develop a positive identity. On the other hand, the kids who do not feel that they are accepted by their families may feel incompetent and worthless. The kids who feel excluded can never become comfortable with their responsibilities and roles and do not develop any sense of potential or any kind of positive contribution to the family.
All kids need to feel loved and accepted by others, initially by their family members and later on by their school friends, peers, larger communities or religious groups, etc. Roots of kids are formed within the family and this prepares them for what they could experience in the outer world and respond to varied situations. Kids tend to adopt habits and values modeled by their parents and in so doing, explore and solidify talents, strengths, passions, interests, values, and belief systems. They carry these with them throughout their lives.
A feeling of belonging is extremely crucial in positive human development as it assists in combating anxiety as well as behavioral issues. A huge part of the self-esteem of a kid comes from the feeling that they matter to the people of the place they belong to and their existence matters. The kids who feel belongingness have emotional support, warmth, comfort, protection, security, and help.
The family offers the kids different chances to share their interests, ideas, to demonstrate their potential, and gain individual recognition which enhances their overall self-esteem. When a kid feels that he fits in the group and the people validate him, his self-esteem increases and he gains confidence in his attitudes and beliefs and gains the courage to act accordingly. The kids start feeling worthy and valuable, carry themselves with integrity and dignity, and feel relaxed. This means that there is less probability that they would indulge in stress coping activities such as over alcohol consumption, smoking, or taking drugs.
Every human desires to have worth and value and one must teach his/her kids to value other people because they are a part of the society. Creating an acceptance culture in the family would assist children in interacting with people from various cultures, upbringings and backgrounds. Accepting people from various backgrounds adds depth and richness to our lives and permits us to enjoy friendships we might never experience otherwise.
For raising kids who are accepting and globally-minded,one does not require to hire tutors or make expenditure on the co-curriculum. Cultural exposure can be done in many ways and open-minded and accepting parents who are role models for their kids would be more successful in raising accepting and open-minded children. This article focuses on some ways to cultivate an accepting culture in families:
Habits are not taught, they are caught. This is extremely true when it is about the attitude towards other people. Kids easily pick up attitudes and identify anxiety or fear via spoken words and body language. For raising open-minded and accepting children, people must be willing to talk to people from all backgrounds. They must reflect curiosity towards other people. By putting up questions and listening to others, one can show that they value them and their life experiences. This will teach the kids to be open as well. Cultural norms differ tremendously and kids can perceive them as weird or wrong. Kids must never be taught absolutes while teaching cultural norms. Different cultures have different norms regarding greeting, table manners, introduction and daily life skills.
Kids must be encouraged to meet people from various cultures.This can be done by inviting guests at home, attending social gatherings, meetings& hanging out at different places and it can provide the kids a chance to play with a kid whose mother tongue is not the same. It can feel awkward to visit an Italian restaurant and befriend the servers but such things would enhance the potential of the child to accept people from different cultures and backgrounds than yours.
In conclusion, a feeling of belonging will help the child in learning life skills to name optimal choices for their future and adulthood. It will also make them feel comfortable in trying new things in life without any fear of failure along with a sense of individuality. The probability of kids committing mistakes would decrease because they would never desire to disappoint their family members as they love and respect them.
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