From the article Kindness 101

But like language acquisition, the inherent capacity to empathize can be profoundly affected by early experience. The first five years of life are now known to be a critical time for emotional as well as linguistic development

It never surprises me to read an article like this – children are born empathetic, infants respond to others’ distress, children need to be given an emotional vocabulary to describe how they feel (just like we teach them labels for colors, we need to teach words for emotions.) It’s all common sense, but I am interested to read when schools attempt to find ways to teach basics such as how to be empathetic. It tells me there’s a heartbreaking problem (obviously more than one problem) in the parenting system when a school has step in to teach what a child already should know but has lost – the ability to empathize.

(I’ve put some books on our library hold list about bullying, everything from toddler board books through stuff for me to read on adolescents. We’re not experiencing this issue but I want to make sure we’re still mindful of it and attuned in case we witness it – as parents or within my calling in church with the kids. There are also some books on “bullyproofing” your kids that may have some good tips for our more reserved and less verbally expressive kids who may need a boost. I’ll post more about those later…)

The article also reminded me that our daily interactions with a baby in the house is beneficial for the kids in a million different ways. I may be stressing about having a newborn and “lessons” (math & spelling, etc) being neglected but for the children, seeing how I react to the fatigue and stressors of postpartum is a crucial lesson in life. Am I patient and empathetic to the new baby, do I explain the different cries and how we can respond/help, do I carefully express my frustrations and how even if I’m exhausted and overwhelmed I must respond with kindness and love? And do I let them know babies are a lot of work but bring joy beyond compare? 🙂 I hope I do, and I resolve this time around to NOT stress the book lessons but to embrace the much more crucial life lessons that a baby provides us!