Apologize to Your Kids

Teaching your kids how to apologize for their mistakes can take a lot of work. As humans, most people don’t naturally want to apologize. Saying sorry requires a lot of work to do. You may find that your kids don’t want to apologize, and there may be a time that they resist doing so. It’s quite common for kids. Teaching your kids to apologize will require that you apologize yourself.

Young toddlers are generally pretty good about saying sorry. If you teach them to say sorry when they say something wrong, they’ll generally say it without much issue. However, at some point they start to understand a bit more what they are saying and what it means. There will come a time when your child will refuse to apologize for something that they did wrong.

Children start to refuse apologizing because they actually realize what they did was wrong, and they feel the shame of it. It’s much easier to simply not say sorry and actually admit that you’re wrong. Your child doesn’t want to actually admit that they messed up. You need to continue to work with your child as they grow and make sure they understand that saying sorry is important to help both themselves and the other person to get over the thing that they did wrong.

Teaching children to apologize needs to start with you apologizing for the mistakes that you make. As a parent, you make a lot of mistakes. No parent is perfect in how they act or what they do. Apologizing to your kids is an absolute must in order to teach your kids that everyone makes mistakes. 

When you apologize, explain why you’re apologizing to them. You need to help your child understand the process of recognizing a mistake, and then understand why an apology is needed. For example, if you yell at your child, you should explain why you raised your voice, and that you shouldn’t have done so. Explain that a better action would have been to have taken some deep breaths and use your normal voice. Explain that sometimes you lose your temper even though you don’t want to, and you need to continue to work on it. Apologize and say sorry for your mistake.

Apologizing to your kids can be difficult for some parents, but it’s absolutely necessary to raise well mannered and caring children. If you act like you never have to apologize for the mistakes that you make, you will be raising a child that acts the exact same way when they do things that are wrong. You shouldn’t be surprised when they talk back to you or take things without any type of apology or shame. Kids that don't understand how to recognize when they're in the wrong will gladly act how they want when they want. You need to help them to understand the correct way to act.

Apologize to your kids when you mess up. Apologize to others around you when you need to. Teach your children through your own actions when it comes to correcting your mistakes, and you’ll find your children are more likely to do so as well.