Teaching new skills and rules of life to the new generation is something we all take very seriously and make sure that we do this task properly. As not only it is a big responsibility to teach them but we also have to ensure that we don’t pass the wrong information to them as it can be detrimental in the long run. Though we are always excited to teach them academics or about how to live in the world, we skip over personality traits, and given the uniqueness of each individual and their significance, it is essential.
What is Personality Traits?
A personality trait is not one particular thing, it is a combination of various aspects of a person’s very core. It can become very philosophical very quickly so to keep things simple, personality traits reflect a person’s fundamental thought patterns, behaviors, and reactions to various situations. Unlike other things in the world it is not this or that, it is this and that, meaning each individual exhibits all of the traits from time to time. But despite this, the basic and unique pattern repeated several times establishes if a person possesses a certain personality trait. Though there is a multitude of studies and models available that each gives their own idea of various aspects of personalities, all of them are right in their own way.
Personality traits to teach your child
As mentioned earlier different models are present, but they all basically try to teach people what personality type they categorize as but the traits are the same overall. Here are 5 personality traits that each child must learn to have a fulfilling life.
1. Extroversion/Introversion: While some disagree to teach these to children, others highly recommend that kids should be familiarized with these. But the reality is that some children are born introverted, they cannot help but dwell within their own mind, and more often than not they are labeled as shy or unfriendly as most of the world is extroverted, therefore, it becomes important to teach them that their behavior is not weird, they are just different. Basically, these two means that if you are an extrovert you are energized by meeting people and drained if you are left alone and in the case of introverts it is the opposite. But despite being either of these, sociability is important, and knowing these interaction traits help the parents understand how to socialize their children with others.
Introverted child sitting away from fellow extroverted children.
2. Empathy: Now that their fundamental trait is established, they can be taught to relate to others or accept the difference. Empathy is one trait that unfortunately, even adults fail to fully incorporate as they were never taught about it. According to scientists, it is one of the essential characteristics that allow children to grow into socially competent beings and understand the consequences of their actions. But it’s important to know how to teach empathy because if you ask them in a way that how’d they feel if they were in other’s shoes, they won’t understand as at the age of 2-5 they are incapable of seeing the world from other’s perspective. So a better approach would be to directly tell them that their actions are causing pain but obviously in a calm manner. Another thing is that if they watch cartoons where beating is occurring they’ll quickly pick sides either to be the one who beats or gets beaten, so ensure that they are not watching these shows or if they are watching the show just tell them how it would feel, this will generate empathy in them.
A child comforting another child.
3. Assertiveness: While some children are naturally assertive most are either overly aggressive or timid and between these two lies the sweet spot of assertiveness. It means speaking your opinion with confidence but in a respectful manner. According to children behavior experts, this allows children to be more successful in their lives as they will not look for clues from others or become aggressive to get their needs met. In addition to that, it allows them to build healthier friendships and relationships later down the road.
A representation of an assertive child.
4. Resilience: It is our natural instinct to shield our offspring from any form of pain or displeasure, our basic thinking is that they should not face such hardships. However, the reality of life is that it is full of hardships, there will be times where you’d be unavailable and couldn’t protect your child against life. What will they do then? They will most likely fear the circumstances and would be unable to continue forward and that’s why teaching children to be resilient is essential. In addition to being resilient, they’ll slowly start to accumulate patience as well, you can even say that resilient cannot come without patience. In order to help your child overcome obstacles, let them solve their problems, to give them a little help you can put their problems into perspective to make them realize that no problem is as big as they once thought it was.
A child dressed as a superhero representing resilience.
5. Responsible: This is one of the most crucial personality traits that sets apart successful people from non-successful people. It is often observed that once children grow up and it is time for them to join college or live on their own, they are completely clueless and are more likely to fail into the pitfalls of adulthood but why? Because they never had to be responsible prior to this event in their life. Responsibility is another reality of life, you have to take on some form of responsibility sooner or later, therefore, teaching them how to be responsible is highly recommended. These don’t have to be full-on adult-level responsibilities, in fact, that is one way to deter them from being responsible, instead, ask them to perform simple tasks like handing water to a family member or having them put their dirty clothes in the laundry basket. This skill allows children to grow into much better functioning adults.
A little girl helping with chores being responsible.
Despite teaching them these characteristics, you can never be sure if they will grow up as you expected. Because life is full of uncertainty and nothing can be guaranteed how it will turn out, but life is also a learning experience, each day your child will learn something new and as you are teaching them you will learn more about yourself as well. So just enjoy the process and let them grow in their own way.
