How to teach a child to apologize?

The word “I’m sorry” should come from the heart — only then does it have great and real power. Therefore, forcing children into saying sorry makes no sense. To start with you must experience apologizing and only then can you proceed to teach your child to apologise. The role of the parent is to enable the child to gain experience by showing them how to behave in a situation when we cause pain or upset to someone. The child learns through observation. The child will draw patterns from their immediate surroundings, and later reproduce the behaviours they have observed. Therefore, it is so important for the child to see their parent apologise, hug and comfort — not only the parent but also other people around them that they see as a model. This helps to learn to react to pain, harm, sadness… By apologizing, you help the child understand the word I’m SORRY. Don’t be afraid to apologise to your child when you lost your temper and shout at them under stress or frustration — you won’t lose any respect in their eyes by doing so. If you act wrongly towards your child, be able to say, “I’m sorry.” The child will then understand that apologizing is not a weakness but is mature and will want to be like you, as children tend to imitate adults. Moreover, the child will understand that all people, even beloved parents, make mistakes and realise the importance of apologising to the wronged person.