To rock a kid play date with neighbors, it is important to teach some principles to our children. That way things can hopefully go very smoothly and the children with have an enjoyable time!
The children we are helping raise are the future! They are our legacy we get to pass forward. We want to make prepare them for the world by helping them learn to build character: Learn how to be a leader and what to do in leadership predicaments, how to problem solve and be solution-oriented, how to work with a team, and how to communicate with others.
Leadership:
If you have studied leadership for a hot second, you probably know that John Maxwell is one of the world’s top experts on leadership. There are a few children’s books he has written for his grandchildren. With leadership, we have to learn to be the visionary. We can teach our children to dream big! We can teach them how to speak in a way that is definite in looking towards the future with a brightness of hope. Then trust that it will happen. Help people along the way when they want to give up.
Solution-oriented:
To me, being solution-oriented means that we can change from winning and complaining to being productive with what the situation has given us. We can become creative in our approach to telling someone what is going on in life. This is great because it means we don’t have to be positive and happy-go-lucky all day long. We can state how we are really feeling, and follow it up with what we are striving for.
Helping them to know that for everything in life, there is “a way out” – this can be for good or bad depending on our motivation. It can be faith-driven in the fact that we want children to know that if they ever feel trapped, God will provide an escape for them. However, on the flip side, finding a way out can make people lazy. It can also create traps and possible dishonesty if not used in the correct ways.
Communication:
Teach your children how to react and act when someone does something that hurts them. A lot of leaders get a lot of praise and upliftment from others… but then there are times when people can say really nasty things. It is hard for many people once they get these comments. There might be some truth to them. It hurts because the person is choosing to look for the bad in you, rather than accepting you as a human – which means you’re inherently flawed. And in that sense, hopefully, we are all trying to get better and heal.
There is a great video about how to deal with rejection. I will link it HERE. The lady talks about how she deals with criticism. If there are those who tear her down as a person or name call, she immediately blocks them. That conversation is not fruitful and will go nowhere. However, if someone is saying something negative or something that hurts, maybe you can learn together how to improve that thing they pointed out.
Communication is one of the most important skills we can teach and I believe is one of the reasons why we go to grade school here in America. Most public schools just teach how to socialize – which is a good thing and can lead to future success! “It’s all in who you know.” You obviously do have to work hard in other areas though to gain someone’s trust and be adequate enough to help out.
Here are some ideas on setting up play dates for your kids with your neighbors, CLICK HERE.