Help your child learn patience

“I want it now!”

How many times have you heard that?

A sweet, a toy, a picnic in the park – the little ones want it now. NOW!

I often ask myself whether small children can exercise patience? How can they be taught this virtue?

Let’s be honest: a lot of adults find patience a huge challenge from time to time. Well, pretty well always. Every minute of our waking life. Look at how people behave on the roads and in queues. Sometimes, we can wait and wait for hours, or days, even years, without grumbling. Other times, patience is not our friend and we become cranky.

So, what about kids who have to depend on parents to fulfill every single need? There are hundreds of things we adults do throughout the day for which we would need to ask permission if we were children. And there is no guarantee we would get what we wanted.

Patience is about trusting that what we cannot satisfy now can do so later. So, parents should know that it is their responsibility to reinforce patience in their little ones who need to trust that their needs will be met when they have to wait for it.

Parenting consultant Mariam Medhat said: “Children are not going to be patient naturally. They have to practice it and get used to not getting what they want when they want it.”

“In some situations, we have to explain to them why they have to wait if they ask for something. For example, if you are cooking dinner and your child asks for something, gently explain that when you are busy, she has to wait for you. But you can see to her as soon as you finish.

“Complying with our children’s request after waiting is necessary to teach them patience. If we don’t do that, it will teach that patience doesn’t result in anything.

“Also, we have to explain to our offspring that sometimes the answer is no, especially when they ask for something that can be harmful to them or we cannot really do for them for whatever reason. We have to remind them that we don’t always get the thing that we want and that’s OK.”

Patience is indeed a virtue. By introducing it to our children and setting them up to it, they will reap its many benefits throughout their lives.