Apologizing to Kids: Should You, Or Shouldn’t You?
posted on Mar 02, 2022
Parenting is indeed a difficult task that brings a lot of responsibilities with it. Right from fulfilling all their materialistic needs to ensuring that they are instilled with all the right values, morals, and ethics, parents have a crucial role to play in the life of kids.
Having said that, we have an important question to ask you today. As parents, you teach your children to apologize whenever they do something wrong, but what do you do when you make a mistake?
No matter your age, apologizing is indeed hard. This becomes even more difficult when it comes to apologizing to your children. Many people believe that elders shouldn’t apologize to the kids as it gives them a wrong message. There is a misconception that if you apologize to your child, your authority will be reduced, and they won’t respect you anymore.
However, this is far from being true! The fact is that most adults find it uncomfortable to drop their ego in front of their kids by apologizing and admitting their mistakes. The truth is that when you apologize to your children for whatever wrong you have done, it shows them that committing mistakes is neither a crime nor is there anything to feel shy about in admitting your mistakes. After all, the path to rectifying one’s faults begin right from embracing the mistakes. Moreover, the kids will see you as more approachable and will bond better with you. There grows more scope for building a relationship with your kids based on mutual respect and trust.
So, in this article today, we, at Gurukul The School, one of the top CBSE schools in Ghaziabad, will shed further light on the topic and would like to share with you some of the basic reasons why we believe apologizing to children is important.
By apologizing, the kids get to see that you are being open and not hiding anything when you make a mistake. This will help you build a relationship of respect and trust with your child by owning your mistake.
When you apologize, your children see you as an example, and this gives them the courage to apologize when required. Children will be less likely to apologize for themselves when they have made an error if they see you hiding your mistakes or refusing to acknowledge your mistakes.
- Preps Them for Taking Up Responsibilities
When your children find you apologizing for your mistakes, they learn a very crucial lesson, i.e., it is not a crime to commit mistakes. However, what is important is for them to take responsibility for their actions and learn from those mistakes. This will help them understand that everyone makes mistakes, and they need to own up to their mistakes by saying sorry.
- Builds Conflict-Resolution Skills
By apologizing and asking for forgiveness, your child learns to resolve conflicts by dropping their ego and not holding any grudges. It helps them communicate better and let go of any enmity. This thereby comes to their aid in building better relations.
We just saw why apologizing to children shouldn’t be looked down upon as something offensive. However, the question remains how to do so? To that end, we, at Gurukul The School, have brought forth for you a few tips that will come to your aid in this regard.
Trust us; there is absolutely no need to feel awkward about admitting your mistake in front of your kids. Instead, explain to them that you were impatient or lost your temper and that you will try not to repeat this again.
- Acknowledge your child’s feelings:
Whenever you feel you have hurt your child by spanking or verbally abusing him a lot, instead of justifying your actions, go on to empathize with your child and tell them that you understand they were hurt. Understand, it is very important to acknowledge their feelings. They should feel that their feelings are heard and valued. By doing so, they will learn that it shouldn’t be tough to identify their true emotions and apologize for their mistakes.
- Apologize without blaming:
When apologizing to your child, it is very easy to put the blame on someone else’s actions. However, make sure that instead of making excuses to justify your actions, you must keep your apology simple and genuine by honestly admitting your mistake.
Always keep in mind that a genuine apology to kids by adults can actually end up instilling in them some of the most vital life lessons, like empathy, honesty, respect, and much more. Besides, it also works wonders in grooming and strengthening your relationship with your kids. At Gurukul The School, ranked among the top CBSE schools in Ghaziabad, we firmly believe that more than the kids, there’s a need for the adults to understand that apologizing for your mistakes is not a sign of weakness but of strength. When you begin doing that, you not just get onto the path of self-recovery but also set some great standards in front of your kids to stick to and follow.