5 Beautiful Ways To Teach Children Gratitude

Updated October 28, 2024

It was one of the last warm days here in Edmonton and I had taken my kids to get slurpees. The next day my daughters were asking to get a treat from the store and I told them no. “You got slurpees yesterday”.

The reply of “it was only a slurpee and that was yesterday” had me fuming a bit.

I got to thinking about how to further teach my kids gratitude. I remember growing up and hearing the “there are kids around the world starving and don’t even ave shoes”, but I think that’s not exactly it, right?

I took to Facebook and asked my friends how THEY teach gratitude and some seriously beautiful things came up.

This land has welcomed First Nations from across Turtle Island, and settlers and visitors from around the world. Alberta lands are part of Treaties 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10, and the homeland of the Métis. Alberta Mamas respects the sovereignty, lands, histories, languages, knowledge systems and cultures of all Indigenous, Métis, and Inuit nations. We are all Treaty people.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the disclosure for more info.

1. Gratitude Jar

Chelsey from Mommy Connections North Edmonton said that her friend has a gratitude jar. They each write one thing they are grateful for that day and that’s how they start dinner time conversation. so sweet.

2. Speak Your Own Gratitude

Shawna said “I teach it by living it. I make note out loud of what I am grateful for” Shawna says out loud she will say she is thankful for a great parking spot when they find one to her kids or when they see someone who is ill or injured she says out loud that she is thankful for health.

Sharing your own gratitude is a great way to manage the stress of parenting, too.

3. Read “Raising Grateful Children in an Entitled World”

Jenna mentioned she is in the middle of reading a book called Raising Grateful Children in an Entitled World and a part talks about how it is healthy to say no to children especially in the case of it being something they want because everyone else has it . This helps teach them the difference between needs and wants.

4. Be Thankful Before Bed

Michele from Empowered Yoga says she sometimes has gratitude brainstorming sessions before bed with her kids. Bethany said she asks her son every night before bed who/what he is grateful for too.

5. Keep Things Special

I remember growing up knowing that I didn’t have some things that my friends did. I knew we didn’t exactly have lots of money, but I never felt like we were “without”. I always felt like I had everything I needed and plus some.

Mom would explain to us why we didn’t have things. Without the negativity. It wasn’t bad that we didn’t have brand new Nike shoes, we just had different shoes.

For things like Christmas we would circle all our desires in catalogues and she would pick the thing that we would circle like 10 times, and talk about a lot, and try and get that one particular thing for us. Keeping it special.

We didn’t get it all, but she really tried to get one thing that meant a lot to us.

Although we had little money, my mom made sure on Friday nights we spent time together and went to the store to get slurpees. We didn’t get them when it was hot out or we had a bad day, but we knew Friday it was coming. We would look forward to it all week.

That’s it. She kept the treat in having a treat. She showed us the little joys in life are easy to be grateful for. It was never about a comparison of what we have or don’t have that others do or do not. It’s actually about enjoying exactly what we can.

Thank you Mom.

And be sure to save this post to Pinterest to find it again later!