Teaching Empathy For One Another

How do you get along as a family when multiple personalities are often at odds? Education!

Understanding breeds acceptance, so have conversations in your family about what makes each of you unique. You could make it a fun dinner game (“which of these words do you feel like describes you?”) or make observations and ask questions of your children (i.e. “David really likes having lots of friends over to play, do you like it when we have lots of people over at our house? What is harder for you, saying hi to a stranger or keeping your room neat?”) Hearing their brother or sister's responses will open your kids' eyes to how they are wired differently and will help create empathy.

You can do the same thing with friends or your neighbors, talk about the differences you observe in those around you and verbalize why those differences are such a great thing to have around your family!

Being understood is a powerful thing, so keep that in mind as you work to help your children understand each other. These talks will happen over and over again during the course of your children's time at home, but hopefully as they mature, they will grow less frequent and you will see in time that they are treating their siblings and others with greater empathy. 

If you will take the time to study your child and educate yourself on their temperament, it will pay BIG dividends. For example, my son, Taylor, is a Blue and he was a total mystery to me. After reading Personality Plus I realized it's because I am Yellow and I just didn't understand his emotional needs. If you want to be equipped with more knowledge about temperaments, take our personality colors quiz and tune into Wire Talk this month as we deep dive into each of the colors and what each of those types of children need from us as moms.

You can also join us from the comfort of your living room for our Mom Core Live class this month, we’ll spend a whole week diving into the colors! (Psst - use code SUBSCRIBER for $5 off your registration!)