Growing socially responsible children

FAMILY CORNER

Val Pope, business manager at the Alliance, shares ideas for inspiring the next generation.

What is social responsibility and what does it mean for your child?

Wikipedia defines it as: “an ethical framework in which an individual is obligated to work and cooperate with other individuals and organizations for the benefit of the community that will inherit the world that individual leaves behind”.

In other words, the actions we take affect other people, so it is important to make those actions as positive as they can be for the community we live in and the generations that come after us. For children, social responsibility also helps build vital social and emotional skills. When children understand they are a part of a wider community, they can begin to:

build harmonious relationships with each other
learn about their family, their community and the wider world and the part they play in it
understand and really believe that everyone has equal value
develop empathy and respect for others
understand how their actions can affect others.

Social responsibility values will motivate children to help others and contribute positively to society from the earliest years.

How do we teach our youngest children to be responsible?

What does social responsibility look like for a three- or four- year old? Can you teach them about re-cycling and avoiding waste and helping to preserve the planet? You definitely can!

If you approach it in an age-appropriate way then you can teach children the importance of their actions and decisions, develop respect and concern for others, thereby building empathy and the foundation for social responsibility throughout their lives.

Children can learn about their local community and the issues that affect it – collecting for a local clothing bank for example, and understand that giving up some of the clothes they no longer need will then help other children in turn to have clothes they might not otherwise be able to have.

Similarly, giving old toys to a children’s hospital or to a charity shop means that other children get pleasure from the toys, and they are learning about re-cycling and minimising waste at the same time.

Teach your children that helping others makes a difference in the world and our society at large. It is important for children to recognise that not every child has access to food, shelter and love – and we should all help in any way we can.

Talking about refugees from Ukraine may be a way to enable children to recognise that those children have come from another country without many possessions and we need to donate money or clothes (if we can) or at least help fundraise or support with our time or in any way we can in our local area and beyond.

Good habits around recycling, upcycling, re-using, re-purposing and avoiding waste can be put into practice very easily, but it is really important that you practice this too so you are leading by example.

Find out more
This article originally appeared the Family Corner blog. For more advice and tips for families, visit familycorner.co.uk.

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