Teach your children not to call people names!
Children pick up phrases, actions, and even behaviors from their surroundings. Most often, they learn by copying you – their parents! That’s why it’s so important to be good role models.
In this age of social media, it has become easier to call people names with no apparent consequence. Sometimes brushed off as teasing or joking, it is a form of verbal abuse.
In fact, 75% of elementary children report they have been called names in school.
How sad it that?
Name calling does have real consequences.
It can have negative effects such as:
Teaches children to be unkind & sets a bad example for the future
Harms their mental health
Impacts their mood
Affects their sense of identity
Decreases their self-esteem & makes them feel unaccepted
Compromises their values
Damages confidence & makes them feel not good enough
Leads to violence
If you see your child being called names:
VALIDATE their feelings so that they know you hear them and they can feel safe talking to you
BUILD their CONFIDENCE by encouraging participation in activities they enjoy with positive individuals
Bring up the issue in an indirect way to help them open up (tell a story about verbal bullying and then ask if they’ve seen it happen)
INTERVENE early to lessen the harm and prevent future mental health consequences
Create a healthy family environment
Connect your child to caring adults
If you see your child naming calling others:
First make sure you, other siblings, or other adults are not the source. Remember, if they see that you don’t do it, and choose not to do it, they’ll be motivated to model that same behavior.
Second, explain to them why it was wrong and that they need to be responsible for their actions. No one can make them do it. Teach them that name-calling is a form of disrespect and that it is important to respect others.
Third, ask them to step in the victim’s shoe and explain to you how they’d feel if it happened to them. Focus on their own self-esteem and impulse control, as many times this is why they do such actions in the first place.
Lastly, help them find good role models and forge healthy relationships.
These things help them cultivate empathy, inclusivity, and kindness – something our world always needs more of.
Life is a journey of learning and even we, not just our kids, have the room to nurture positivity, improve our self-worth, and grow into better human-beings that the day before.
Your PediPals