How do you measure success for your child? Report cards? Friendships? Awards of merit? Happy?
Yes, that’s right-happy! Ask yourself – are my kids happy?
If the answer is ‘yes’ then well done. Because happy kids are successful kids, go-getters, and they spread happiness.
What if when we were asked ‘How are you?’ we replied ‘Happy’. I’d like to start a movement where children recognize they are happy and are proud to tell the world.
To spread the happiness movement, we need to help our children with these big little lessons:
- The Little Things: the unexpected things which show kindness. From sharing a sharpened pencil to helping clean up a spill, the little things make a big difference and make both giver and receiver feel good.
- Model Happiness: show children how to be happy, how to be grateful and how to make the most of every experience. If our cup is full, they will see the positivity and look for that every day.
- Playtime: it is that simple, unstructured, free time to play. Kids need time to be kids – to run in bare feet, to play in the mud, to feel free from constraints and pressures. Kids need to play. It makes them happy. And it makes the adults happy to see the children happy.
- Fill the Bucket: Yes, the bucket. Show your child you care and let them know you listen. Fill their bucket with kindness, interest, jokes, and good times. Watch a movie with them, bake with them, make memories with them. It fills their bucket (and yours too). Life will try to take from their buckets and you need them to know that it doesn’t define them. The bucket is an ongoing process and we keep on filling it. Every day.
On that note of positivity, I have two kids who make me very, very happy. And I’m off now to follow my own advice and feed off of their positive energy, which fills my bucket every day.