It took me longer that most to become a mother. After a variety of invasive and unsuccessful treatments, I held my little boy for the first time in July 2015, he came to us through adoption. When I looked into his tiny blue eyes for the very first time, I froze with fear. How is this terrible world we live in going to treat this being who I have instantly fallen in love with? While a realized that I can always protect him from unkindness,  I can play a role in making sure he himself add to the good of the world and spreads love and good deeds wherever he goes.

I stick to my opinion in this regard: the best way to teach someone, especially children, is to the set the example, be who you need them to be. A lot easier said than doe. This meant that my husband and I needed to start putting “kindness” into practice (not that we were meanies before), we just needed to make it more part of our lives. I still wanted to take a more proactive stance however and I started researching ways to instill kindness into children. 

The greatest legacy one can pass on to one's children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one's life, but rather a legacy of character and faith. Billy Graham
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/billy_graham_626354?src=t_children 

Image Source

Here’s a few pointers that I found helpful:

The purpose is to encourage kids of all ages to become more aware of carrying out kind deeds and to pay attention to the needs, thoughts and feelings of those around them. Help enable children to become givers of kindness through these 4 steps: 

1. Help the to understand the importance of kindness. This requires you to have an understanding of the concept yourself! Firstly, ask your children how they feel when someone is kind to them - they will most likely respond by saying that they “feel good”. Then ask them how they feel when someone is mean to them, they will say they “feel bad”. Explain that everyone would rather feel good than bad, and that we have the power to spread feelings of goodness by being kind. 
2. Initiate a “Kindness” project or initiative. This can be administered as a class or at home as a family, or both! Plan an activity where each family member or student records one act of kindness a day. The activities and acts don’t need to be huge or costly, the can be everyday things that we sometimes take for granted.
3. Share how being kind made you feel. If you are a teacher, allow the students to give a talk on the kind of things they did that week, or you could discuss it as a family over dinner. Being kind is nothing to be ashamed of, make it an everyday normal occurrence in your school and household. Let children feed off of one another’s kindness.
4. Practice kindness until it becomes a part of your personality. With children especially, repetition is key. Show kindness, be kind, do acts of kindness, talk about kindness, SING about kindness, acknowledge kindness! Breathe kindness like it is part of the air you need to survive.   

These are just a few things you can do to make the world a better place. Who knows who will feed off this kindness and start to spread good deeds themselves! Be the cause, not the effect, make a better world for your children, for my children, by adding just a little bit of kindness to your day.

Much love - @sweetpea

(bringing you original content)