Are We Teaching Our Children It’s Ok To Hate?

Are We Teaching Our Children It’s Ok To Hate?

I just had to express my thoughts on this subject after a Facebook post I read. As I’m scrolling through my FB feed I see a post from a young mother that is part of my FB friends. She shared that her young child announced in a group setting that she hates ____________. (I’m leaving out the name, as it is not the important thing in this story.) The mother did not seem concerned about this. I can only guess that response was because of who the child said they hated, again, that’s just my guess.

As I read this, it hurt my heart. Why would we choose to teach our children to hate? They come to this world, as we all do, with perfect Love. We all have a spark inside of us that completely understands and embraces unconditional Love. Hate, on the other hand, is learned, intolerance is learned, the feeling of being better than another is learned, and it all keeps us stuck in the circle of unhappiness. Projecting your unhappiness on to another person to try and feel better about yourself in the long run never makes anyone truly feel better. It only perpetuates more projection of unhappiness on to others, as the real problem is we do not want to look at ourselves and how we contributed to the situation.

Our children can be our greatest teachers
Our children can be our greatest teacher, in the case I’ve just stated, WOW, what a mirror of looking at ourselves when our child makes statements such as hating someone, and we know they heard it from us. This is a perfect time for us to question ourselves and decide to choose differently moving forward. Making a choice to teach our children compassion, Love, and to understand that each person has a point of view. If we teach them to respect other’s points of view even if they do not agree, we can change the world.

However, teaching to hate and being intolerant of others will never bring peace to any situation or the world. And then where’s the line on hate and intolerance? How could the child possibly know?

When I was raising my child I truly felt he was one of the greatest teachers of my life. Being a parent really shows you what you’re made of and situations bring your soul to the surface every day. Remembering patience, Love, and compassion help us to help our children. I believe the children coming to the world now have a special talent to help the world with compassion and tolerance to create peace.

Can we please help them by demonstrating these loving traits?

Sending Much Love To Everyone!

Cheryl Piper-Snyder