A very common quote says that good things come to those who wait, but unfortunately most of our kids may have not heard of this yet. They might have heard about patience being a virtue, but have not fully understood its meaning.
Patience is not just a virtue but also a critical life-skill. Parents must inculcate patience into their kids as early as possible through simple training like waiting. Children need to learn to wait and most importantly need to maintain a positive attitude while waiting.
Here are some ways to teach your child to wait without whining:
Teach Activities To Pass Time.
The skill of waiting cannot be learned overnight, parents can prepare enjoyable activities to develop waiting such setting a bowl outside as the rain fills it up or waiting for a newly finished painting to dry.
Parents can teach their children coping skills to pass time like singing songs or counting. Parenting.com discourages immediate gratification of your child's demands. Teach your child to wait and help the child understand that not all of the requests can be attended to right away.
Apply Reflective Listening.
Sometimes children start to whine because they feel they are not listened to. Applying the strategy of reflective listening will cue the child that the concern has already been heard and that a solution will be brought about in a little bit.
Use a calm voice and acknowledge your child's struggle with waiting, reassure your child that you will attend to the need as soon as you can. On other times they whine because they do not know how to express their frustrations, helping them verbalize their angst is sometimes just all they need.
Be A Role Model.
Family Share talks about how parents can teach by example; "Let your children know you are willing to do the very things you ask them to do." Parents should live by the virtue of patience too.
Parents' actions will tell their kids more of what they have to say or teach. Set good examples to your little ones; sing songs when stuck in traffic or get busy with word search books when waiting in queue. Show your child how waiting is done and that waiting can be fun!
