Teach Your Kids Playground Etiquette

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As a mom with 6 kids, I know that kids, especially girls, can be mean to their peers. It is unexplainable and at times extremely frustrating because too often parents don’t know how their kids are treating other kids or being treated themselves. I do not believe in being a helicopter mom but I do believe in teaching and training my kids how to treat one another. When I decided that I wanted to write this post I was initially going to title it, ‘Teach Your Girls Playground Etiquette’, but then realized that boys need to be taught this as well.

I’ve been raising kids for over 20 years and from my experience, most kids are genuinely amazing. They want to have friends, they want to do their best and they want to please others but like most adults, sometimes our kids forget how to behave. As a mom, I am constantly teaching my kids good habits and correcting them when I see them make bad choices. Here are a few examples we can give our kids on how to treat others, especially while on the playground:

1. If you start a game with a group of friends and someone wants to join in, let them. It’s not fun to be left out
2. If you are playing a game with your friends, don’t quit before the game is over.
3. Keep your hands to yourself, unless you are playing a contact sport, do not push, grab onto, squeeze, twist arms, pull hair, or anything that makes someone feel uncomfortable. Rough play should be kept at home between siblings.
4. Take turns. Everyone deserves a chance to play.
5. Don’t talk bad about people. If you think that your ‘friend’ will keep a secret when you tell them what you think about Sarah’s clothes, think again. It’s also simply not nice to talk about people and you wouldn’t want to be talked about.
6.  Do not critique your friend’s appearance, their clothes, their grades, etc.. You need to worry about you and let them worry about themselves. There is no need to tell your friend that they have hairy legs because even though you may not realize it, they probably already know that their legs have hair on them.
7. If someone confides in you, don’t tell your friends. If it’s something that can put your friend in danger, then tell a teacher or your parents.
8. If you see someone being mean to someone or a group of kids picking on someone, say something or tell a teacher.
9. If you see someone sitting alone, ask them if they want to play or sit down and talk to them.

As a parent, my goal for my kids is to encourage them to be examples for others, to be kind to everyone, to be a leader and to make new friends. Kids are not perfect and sadly, oftentimes they follow the examples of their peers or the adult figures in their life.

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Do you talk to your kid’s about playground etiquette?

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