Raising Kind Children

Kindness is a virtue that leads your life path towards well-being. It is a characteristic that can be expressed in multiple ways, but it’s all about being ‘happy to help’. Here’s how to teach your child to be kind.

- Kalyani Krishna

While delivering a lecture, the chairperson of Infosys Foundation, Dr Sudha Murty spoke about an interesting practice adopted in their household.

“My daughter Akshata is a shopaholic and keeps buying a lot of dresses. As a parent, I make her understand the luxury she enjoys is a result of hard work put in by her parents and many of our employees. As a rule, every time Akshata adds new dresses to her wardrobe she should also give an equal number of her apparel to those in need. I still go by the advice that late J R D Tata gave me when I left my job to assist my husband in leading Infosys. He told me, 'You are only a trustee of money and it always changes hands. When you are successful, give it back to society that gave you so much goodwill.' Today, we are running a successful software business and it is our turn to inculcate the same values in our children.”

Now, that was a really ‘kindhearted’ statement by one of the most respected personalities in India. As has been defined globally on multiple platforms, ‘an act of kindness is a spontaneous gesture of goodwill towards someone or something - our fellow humans, the animal kingdom, and the kingdom of nature. When we carry out an act of kindness it is a message from one heart to another, an act of love, an unspoken "I care" statement’.

WHY KINDNESS MATTERS