Thank you Marissa Angell for the picture!

I’m not trying to be gloomy or offensive or even inconsiderate, but is consideration a lost art form?  There are many days where I feel like it is dying!

Although I want my children to grow up and be considerate, I sometimes feel like it’s a lost cause.  I get so irritated with inconsiderate people and part of me doesn’t want my children to feel that.  However, I also don’t want inconsiderate children, so I’m trying my hardest to teach them when our culture seems just as determined to undermine me!

Examples

Everyday we are inundated with inconsiderate people and circumstances.

• Blocking the ramped part of a sidewalk with your car to make it impossible for someone in a wheel chair to access the sidewalk and make it extremely difficult for someone pushing a stroller to access the sidewalk.
• Always taking and never giving
• Compromising my and my children’s right to breathe for your right to smoke (especially outside of a school, really?!)
• Texting or calling someone on the phone before 9 AM or after 9:30 PM (was anybody else taught that?)
• Showing up late without notice
• Making people wait for you
• Cutting someone off in traffic
• and the list goes on and on…..

What To Do

As far as teaching my children:

• I simply point out when people are being inconsiderate.
• I ask them why it is inconsiderate.
• I ask my children how the person should/could rectify it.

It is nice to hear my children notice it for themselves and say something about it.  There have even been times when my child has said something to me about an inconsiderate situation and the offending person overhears and sometimes gives me bad look.  I honestly don’t feel too bad about it!  From the mouths of babes!  🙂

I on the other hand, try to be considerate (plus it’s being a good role model).

• We give up our seats at church for the elderly/pregnant/moms with small children.
• Hold open doors for others.
• Call if we are running late.
• Try to give at least as much as we take.
• Imagine ourselves in other people’s shoes and try to imagine what we would like/need in that situation and then try to provide it for them.
• etc.

How do you teach your children to be considerate?