The importance of teaching our kids to be socially inclusive.
The capability of our children having tolerance and acceptance towards everyone is a skill, that skill would help make the future more inclusive, being inclusive is to not exclude any minority in society/any social groups, people are valued and differences are respected.
How do we teach our children inclusivity?
First and foremost we must be their role models, setting the image that they should be following. When our children see us treat others with kindness and respect they will imitate us. Lead by example!
EMPATHY is key, empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, teaching our children how to read and relate to other’s feelings is a priority since it’s the first step to raising a child that would not bully others for their differences, knowing that their actions and words may have a bad effect.
Be open to accepting any sort of questions and answering them honestly, having conversations about differences can be uncomfortable but you need to remember always they need clear, honest, and correct answers from YOU. We have to teach our children that there are inappropriate words and terms that are socially unacceptable, correct them when they use such terms, and teach them to apologize if used.
Read books, watch movies and indulge in content that is diverse, such mediums make it easier for us to send the message in a friendly and creative matter, children follow examples, not only will we be their examples but multimedia is also lending a hand, pick what they read and watch wisely.
We are lucky to live in a country where diversity is a major factor, we are surrounded by different cultures and the UAE has not faltered in setting an example of tolerance and acceptance, hence exposure to diversity and teaching our children how to behave in such scenarios is not a difficult task.