If you believe that, during this time of year, your children should learn to value what they have and what they receive, avoiding the nonconformity they might develop by instilling in them a solidarity education, this post is for you.
How to detect nonconformity in children?
We have carefully prepared the Christmas gifts, we have made several lists to buy the most suitable gifts for each of our children. We spend hours wrapping everything, decorating the house, and with all the preparations for one of the most magical times of the year.
When it’s time to open the gifts, without realizing it, we feel that something has gone wrong during these holiday celebrations, where the predominant note is nonconformity. Children increasingly receive more material gifts, which they often do not value, thus creating overstimulation in a short period of time and a fleeting loss of excitement for new toys.
Towards a solidarity-based early childhood education
The situation described above can be even worse; perhaps your children complain that their gifts were not exactly what they wanted, or that they like their sibling’s or friends’ gifts more—some somewhat selfish attitudes that lead to children who know no limits.
Children growing up in today’s society live surrounded by many stimuli, which increase during this time of year. Television commercials, shop windows, and central supermarket aisles are meticulously designed to capture the attention of the little ones.
If we don’t want Christmas to become a competition to see which child received the most gifts, we must start instilling in them a solidarity education where they understand that they cannot have everything they desire.
Children see their friends with the latest and best, and they can’t help but want the same. If we don’t intentionally combat these attitudes, we will turn children into capricious, greedy, and insatiable individuals, and we will lose the battle of solidarity education.
Educating children against nonconformity
It is important to prepare the moment of receiving gifts weeks in advance, and not wait until the holiday season to explain to them that they cannot have an attitude of nonconformity towards the gifts they receive.
The first step is to make them value what they already have and make them understand that they should prioritize the gifts they most desire; otherwise, the list can be too extensive. Additionally, we must make them understand that during this time of year, they will not only receive toys; they can also receive as a gift, for example, tickets to an amusement park, to see a musical of their favorite movie, board games, or a book, as reading is very important for the little ones.
It is also important to make them see which toys they use the most, which ones they don’t, and try to get them to get rid of the ones they don’t use before the new gifts arrive. To do this, we can make a list with them of those they barely play with or that have been in their box for several months, and teach them that for new toys to come in, old ones must go out.
One of the keys to solidarity education is to do it through examples. For this, we must make them see that nonconformity is not the correct attitude by getting rid of things we don’t use and sharing them with others, thus showing them the way forward.
If you find the study of attitudes of nonconformity and solidarity education interesting, you work in the field of Psychology, and would like to delve deeper into the treatment of the child and adolescent population, do not hesitate to request information about the Master’s in Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology offered by ISEP