Quotes are Great Gentle Reminders

One very gentle and effective way of reminding kids all the things I have mentioned before is to introduce them to quotes. When someone else has said something, your kids may find it easier to accept.

Quotes are an easy way to instill a thought, a belief or an idea. All you have to do is post it in a place where your kids can read it. In our house, some doors are full of quotes, our fridge is covered with them and even in the toilet there are poems and quotes that we want our kids to adopt (while they sit there and ponder about the universe…). Most of the quotes we have talk about character building, motivation, attitude, courage and self esteem. By reading them over and over again, the thoughts become part of our being.

When my young sister travelled to India and Thailand for six months, I bought her a journal and on every other page, I wrote a quote about travelling, about being safe and confident and about self discovery. She said that every time she wrote in her journal, the quotes I had written were the most appropriate for the emotional growth she was experiencing.

As you have already seen, I have collected many quotes and poems to motivate kids. I encourage you to print the ones you like the most and post them in places where you and your kids can see them often.

Affirmations quote

How to collect and use quotes to motivate your kids

Collect quotes that mean something to you. There are many quote sites on the Internet and many thousands of quotes in each of them, so search for any topic with the word “quotes” to find them
Make sure the quotes are suitable for your kids’ ages – consider the topic and level of language to ensure the message is clear
If the quotes are in your head, it is best to get them out of there and display them where your kids can see them
Make sure your quotes are positive and not negative (“Love thy neighbor”, not “Don’t hate thy neighbor”).
Stay away from sarcastic quotes – they may be funny on the surface, but their underlying message is about being powerless, helpless and hopeless
Come up with your own quotes. If you say something to your kids repeatedly, make it a quote. I have a quote that is only mine and my kids know this quote by heart – “My mommy loves me a million millions”. I have said to my kids it so many times by now that if you come in the middle of the night and whisper “My mommy” in their ears, they will automatically mumble “loves me a million millions”.
Make your quotes look attractive to get your kids’ attention to them – use colored paper or lots of color, special fonts, bold print, images and stickers, make them big, 3-dimensional or laminated
By posting your quotes around the house, you can guarantee your kids will be exposed to them even when you are not physically next to them. Entrances, albums, showers, mirrors, doors, toilets and diaries are only some of the place where you can post your quotes

As always, come back and share your successes with everyone by posting a comment.

More gentle reminders next week,
Ronit