You can find serenity in teaching your children to be a friend to themselves. This article is another in a series devoted to sharing lessons I learned and am teaching my children. These lessons are good tips for both children and adults. Previous articles dealt with teaching our children it’s okay to fail and “get all you can and can all you get.” In upcoming articles, I will share my ideas on:
The special lesson for today is one I got from my children’s kindergarten teacher, “be a friend to yourself.” My 18-year-old son was the first of my children to be taught this lesson. When he was in kindergarten his teacher, Mrs. Friedman, at Gladwyne Elementary School, taught the children that they had to show themselves good friendship.
Five years later, Mrs. Friedman was the kindergarten teacher for one of my twins. I was thrilled to see she was teaching the children the same lesson. In order to be a friend to others, you must treat yourself as a friend. This is a fact, plain and simple. It is one simple enough for a brand new kindergarten child to learn.
Many adults push this lesson out of their minds with the responsibilities and trials of adulthood. We treat our friends with:
- courtesy
- respect
- kindness
- dignity
- understanding

To read more about love and family, check out the following:
A Family Game – You can find serenity in learning that it can be really fun to create a family game. Click here to read more.
and
Best Pick-Up Line Ever and The Communist Manifesto – I never would have thought that I would hear the best pick-up line ever while reading the Communist Manifesto. Click here to read more.
Also, check out our Confidence Tip of the Day YouTube channel for hundreds of videos on creating the confidence you need to succeed.
Figure out what is the best possible advice you could give in the situation and take it yourself. In all your actions, be a friend to yourself. It is not wrong to be a friend to yourself, it is the bare minimum that you owe yourself as a human being. Being a friend to yourself is an important lesson for our children and a lesson we should not forget as adults. [Tweet “In order to be a friend to others you must learn to show yourself good friendship.”] In conclusion, by being a friend to yourself, you make it possible for you to be the best person you can be and thus makes you a better person to have in the world. So, the question for you this serene day is, what are you going to do to show yourself good friendship?