Tips For Teaching Your Children Gratitude

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Teaching children to be more grateful and positive, not just during the holidays but throughout the year, is no easy task. But there are some ways to teach gratitude to kids.

For the McLaughlin family, breakfast isn't just about burying your head in a bowl of cereal. Mom of four Alexandra McLaughlin says it's about expressing gratitude and practicing kindness.

"What do you appreciate about Molly?" she asks one of her children. "I appreciate that she's really nice to the family," he says.

McLaughlin says one way she teaches her children to be more grateful is by making time for chores.

"They can see what's being part of a family, that it's not mom does all the work and I can just sort of breeze through. So my hope is too to also have my boys and my daughters to do well when they're adults."

Pediatrician Dr. Kathleen Berchelmann, a mom of seven, says the best place to start teaching "is to say thank you all the time."

"As it becomes a habit, as that child learns at the end of every activity, every time they're departing, they're saying thank you as a full sentence, they're teaching themselves gratitude," she said.

Berchelmann says another way to teach gratitude is to keep some kind of a journal. The McLaughlins have a jar, and each week everyone writes down at least one thing they are thankful for and puts it in the jar.

"It's something tangible to understand what it means to be grateful because there's so much talking at your children," McLaughlin says, "and so even though the younger ones are great at saying 'please' and 'thank you,' they may not know why they're saying it."

McLaughlin says it's all about taking the time to appreciate each other and what you have.

Berchelmann says children should also be encouraged to help someone else, whether it's a sibling, neighbor or classmate.