It’s Important for Kids to have Social Skills

The world is getting smaller; competition is getting stronger for obtaining jobs and doing business. We need to ensure we have every advantage when selling ourselves to people. It is, therefore, important for children to learn manners and social skills from an early age, so that they will be ready for interviews for university, jobs and generally knowing how to meet, greet or entertain customers and clients.

So often I have heard or seen how a person has lost out on a job, a promotion or socially due to their lack of confidence in mixing and mingling, knowing how to behave and having good manners at the table.

Wardrobe

So many clothes brands are setting up kids departments and parents are buying clothes often for the kids before themselves as they find it easier to spoil them. The best approach is to teach children how to organise and plan their wardrobe on a budget, so that they have clothes they enjoy wearing and yet know how to wear them in different ways and feel great in them. No doubt if you have two or more children you will notice they often want different clothes, due to having different personalities. But be careful – spoiling them with lots of clothes will only encourage them to have too many clothes in the future, with obvious financial consequences!

Shopping

When your child wants to purchase an item, have them go to the counter to pay for it and teach them to check the change and to thank the assistant and smile. This will encourage them to engage with strangers and to be confident and polite.

Manners

For children to be successful in life, they need to have good social skills as well as academic skills. If you help young children to learn how to be polite and caring, they will continue to use good manners and become more socially aware as they get older.

Your kids may not appreciate this advice at the time, but it is one of those things that they will thank you for later in life. The sooner you teach your children, the easier it will be for them as they get older. Good manners do not come by themselves, they need to be taught.

Parents should always remember that the best way to teach manners is to lead by example, although they must also allow the child time to learn. Action speaks louder than words.

Next week I will have some suggestions and ideas to help prepare your children to have a great image.