I just finished a short article written by Alyssa Campbell who
works in early childhood education and emotional development. She makes the point that “key components of
emotionally intelligent kids include self-awareness, self-regulation and
motivation. But surprisingly, the most
overlooked one is empathy…We teach emotional intelligence by responding to
children with empathy.”
That reading prompted me to recall a very short but meaningful
incident that occurred a few years ago as I was leaving a restaurant in Chicago
with my three-year-old grandson and his parents. As we crossed the street to our car and entered
the other side, we turned and noticed the little boy’s lips were slightly
quivering and a tear was streaking down his rosy cheek. We immediately stopped in our tracks and bent
down to ask why he was suddenly crying.
It was difficult for him to voice what was troubling him but he was
saying something about a squirrel. We
all then remembered that we had casually passed a flat squirrel in the middle
of the street, but frankly, thought nothing of it. We’ve all seen lots of squirrels that couldn’t
make a decision to run faster, so they froze and paid the ultimate price. We adults had become desensitized to the
image. Sort of like watching war clips
on the nightly news…
Fortunately, his parents embraced his genuine empathy and
his dad asked if he would feel better if he went back and moved the squirrel
out of the street to the curb. My
grandson slowly shook his head affirmatively and we waited patiently while the
body was removed from ongoing traffic.
Once he witnessed this his demeaner brightened and we proceeded to our car
where we all shared an uplifting ride home!
And lastly, Campbell concludes that we should all “remember
to pause and say ‘I love you’. It’s
impossible to spoil kids with love. We
promise that you can never say those words too much.”
