How to Help Kids Remember to be Kind with a Kindness Promise

Inside: Help kids remember to be kind and speak with kindness and act with kindness with this printable kindness promise that comes in color and a colorable black and white version.

I could see steam coming from my eldest daughter’s ears.

She had offered to let her sister go first, which was incredibly kind.

We’ve been working really hard to raise our kids to be kind to their siblings.

But in the same second, my youngest impatiently pushed past her and ended up stepping on my eldest’s toes.

And that was it.

My eldest was done.

She didn’t feel like being kind anymore.

“I’m not going to let her go first. If she was mean to me, then I’m not going to be kind to her.”

After I helped my eldest calm down and wiggle her toes to prove they were in fact not broken, I had help her remember the most important thing about kindness had nothing to do with her sister’s actions at all.

The Most Important Part of Being Kind

We want our kids to be kind. It’s so important to us it’s one of our only two family rules.

So we talk about being kind often with these 60 kindness discussion starters.

We read books about being kind.

And we participate in 100 Acts of Kindness.

But we also spend time talking about why we’re kind to others.

And it’s these conversations that make all the difference for helping our kids stay kind even when they don’t feel like being kind.

Because we’re not kind to others only if they’re kind to us. That’s being nice. And it’s conditional.

But if we’re kind because that’s the best/right/moral option, that’s what matters.

When we’re kind regardless of how others treat us, that’s what matters.

And when we’re kind because that’s who we are inside, that’s what matters.

How to Use the Kindness Promise

So to help our kids remember to be kind unconditionally, no matter how others treat them, we help them recite this simple promise. To themselves.

They’re not promising me they’ll be kind.

They’re promising themselves.

And this is the true power of kindness.

Because when kids decide to be kind and then hold tight to that kindness promise, they’ll stay kind even when they don’t feel like it.

But of course, our kids need reminders.

So this kindness pledge will help them remember.

1. Purchase and print out the Kindness Promise with the link down below on cardstock.

2. If your kids enjoy coloring like my daughter, give them the black and white version so they can decorate it and make it their own.

3. Place the Kindness Promise in a place your kids will see it everyday…the fridge, the bathroom mirror, their bedroom wall…and help them recite the words.

4. Recite the words daily and talk about what they really mean.

When we promise ourselves to be kind, we’re not waiting to see how others treat us first.

We’re just going to be kind. No matter what.

And that’s what makes us the best version of ourselves.