Raising kind kids, one step at a time

I’m not usually the superstitious type. Sure, I believe in the Chinese zodiac and its predictions on personality, relationships and success in life, but things like phases of the moon or Friday the 13th or 666 being unlucky numbers are simply beyond me. But somehow, for the past few weeks, I’ve stumbled on several articles in various locations around the internet, including a podcast, that share a common theme — kindness, or more specifically, how to instill kindness in children.

I first learned about teaching kindness to children through reading a book by the psychologist Thomas Lickona called “How to Raise Kind Kids” last year. Although it had some interesting points, I wasn’t entirely impressed by it, so I put the book towards the back of my mind and never thought about it again. It wasn’t until last month that I came upon this article in the Ted blog, which led to this video by Ellen Rogin. It wasn’t really about kindness, but in it, she mentioned how showing gratitude can have positive effects for us all.

Then, as June crept along, I came upon this article on CNN from the infamous Esther Wojcicki, (or “the silicon valley grandmother” as some media outlets have dubbed her) about her parenting secrets. She’s famous because she managed (with the help of her husband) to raise three very successful women. One of them is a college professor/researcher for a prestigious university. Another is the CEO of YouTube, and another is the co-founder of 23andMe. After reading the article, I found her to be quite pretentious and…