Today is Martin Luther King., Jr. Day. What’s important is to focus on what he stood for: peace, equality, and justice.
Let’s start with our children. Encourage them to talk instead of fighting when they find themselves in uncomfortable situations. Ask if they’ve been picked on or have seen other children being picked on, and explore the topic of bullying. When a child does something that physically or emotionally harms another child, get him to put himself in that child’s place to experience what she feels, and decide together what positive action, not punishment, is appropriate to heal the situation.
Read children’s books together featuring a person of another culture and talk about the similarities between the character’s life and their life. Engage them in a game that involves taking turns and sharing, adding a penalty rule for arguing and bonus points for compromising and working out differences.
n short, help your kids think and act in ways that help bring about the world MLK worked toward–one of peace and compassion.
Accentuate the Positive
Studies have been done on the effects that comments have on people. It’s obvious that negative comments are hurtful. We all know the gut-feeling when someone says something that cuts us down, lumps us into an unpopular category, refers to our loved one in an unkind way, makes our work seem meaningless, or otherwise shows contempt toward us and disrespect for us as a person. Those studies indicate that a single negative comment takes five positive ones to counteract. Herein lie two lessons: 1) We should try to avoid those soul-tearing words, yet notice when we slip and say them…it happens to all of us. 2) We should practice saying five positive things daily to each person we live with or have frequent contact with. In this way, we work toward showing more respect for other members of our human family. And our emphasizing the positive makes us a happier, less stressed-out person.