The Importance Of Respect In Relationships Between Adults and Children

Respect is vital in all successful relationships, and this is no different within a relationship between an adult and a child. The respect works both ways, it's not just the child who has to respect the adult.

When a child feels respected this has a profound affect on how they feel about themselves and how they behave towards others.

Being respected by important people in our lives growing up teaches us how to be respectful towards others. It builds feelings of trust, safety and wellbeing.

When a child screams and cries over a broken stick that they have picked up on a nature walk, we don't want to respond with "come on, stop crying, don't be silly". This feels disrespectful for the child, as this is important in their world right now. If our partner or friend were crying about something that was important to them, we wouldn't tell them to "stop crying and don't be silly".

A response like this will cause the child, as it would an adult, to feel frustrated, unheard and wronged.

We need to react with kind words and understanding, as we would with a friend.

We would say to them "oh, the stick broke and you were having a lovely time playing with it. You feel sad because it's broken". Let them feel that emotion, comfort them and help them overcome their frustration without dramatising their problem".

Let's remember that we don't demand respect from children, we show them how it's done!