Parenting With a Purpose: Teaching Kids to Be Proactive

If your child is bullied, or there’s a teacher who has it out for your child since day one, or there’s negative backlash on social media, whatever it may be, as parents, it’s hard not to react and take action!

(LEP, BCBA) renowned parenting psychologist, board-certified behavior analyst, and author joined us live today about  the importance of being proactive vs. reactive.

Here are some ways you can teach kids to be proactive vs. reactive and take control of your own actions:

1. Take a moment to pause. Wait 30 seconds before you react/post. Did you know a child’s frontal lobe is not fully developed until age 14 and this is where their impulse control behaviors are.
2. Avoid jumping to conclusions.
3. Consider other people’s perspective -empathy is when you route yourself in someone’s shoes.
4. Turn it into a teaching moment
5. Don’t forget about self care and when engaging in acts of kindness remember to be kind to yourself.
6. Be Proactive – if there’s an issue that is bothering your child and this is really affecting their mood, teach them how to be proactive, and an advocate for what they do not think is right.

Reena’s daughter, Maliya also joined the conversation to talk about the that she co-created with her sister.

• What is this app: Kindfull is a social platform for anyone to share acts of kindness and where everyone is welcome. The app encourages you to show kindness and positivity in your community, model what others do in their own community, and more than anything, be a judgment free zone.
• Our mission is to create a safe place and positive social environment where no one feels criticized and everyone belongs. We want to celebrate differences, make a long lasting impact on the world, and create a community for everyone.
• What we see happening in the digital space: Social media is having a big impact on kids, teens, and adults in all aspects of their lives. There has been a big increase in mental health issues caused by social media, and because of that, we wanted to make a difference. Kindfull was created to be a safe space for positive social media, where no negativity is allowed, and where positivity and kindness is at the heart of it all.
• It is a platform that actually pushes you away from the screen to have an impact on society, instead of keeping you hooked on things that don’t matter.

How this helps generations to come:

• EASE INTO THE ONLINE SPACE IN A SAFE AND KIND WAY – For many kids, this may be the first social media platform they join, and from this experience they will learn how to interact with others only in a positive and kind way and to praise others for their positive impact on the world.
• CREATE COMMUNITY WITHOUT DISTRACTIONS AND NEGATIVITY
• We know how much negativity there is in the world, and because of that we created Kindfull to be a platform that floods with positive thoughts and actions, and where negative comments and ideas aren’t allowed.
• STAY CONNECTED WITH FRIENDS TO FOSTER POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS Friendships will be created thanks to common ideas on how to make positive impacts. Because of the no negativity rule, these friendships will also thrive on positive reinforcement and kind comments.