A 14-year-old and her dad are on a mission to inspire people to “just say hello” this winter – a simple yet effective way of showing kindness, even if you can’t offer much more than that in the moment.
With the cost of living impacting people’s ability to donate cash or items to charities, teen Maya and her father Usman Dar are urging families to notice the people around them rather than simply walking past.
“Be aware of your surroundings,” said Maya, who offered the example of someone going shopping and noticing another person sitting on the pavement asking for money.
Don’t walk past and leave them feeling invisible. “Even if you can’t help them, say hello to them at least. Give them attention,” she urged.
Usman, who is from the charity Humanity Care Relief, believes these small interactions can be particularly powerful when children see their parents practicing them, too.
He recalled recently noticing an elderly woman struggling with a trolley outside B&Q. Despite carrying a paint bucket and experiencing pain in his hand, he passed the bucket to his wife and went over to help.
“These are the small things. When children see, or you discuss with the children … these things will go a long way,” he said.
Studies show children are very much influenced by what they see adults doing.
As Fiona Yassin, a family psychotherapist and founder and clinical director of The Wave Clinic, previously told HuffPost UK: if parents act kindly to others, their little ones will copy. “It’s important we try to have a kind and gentle outlook to the way we conduct ourselves in all of our interactions,” she added.
Usman believes teaching empathy starts with rebuilding basic human connection, both inside the family home and in the wider community.
“I think these days the biggest problem is that we don’t speak to each other,” he said, “whether it’s parents and children or children to parents or a grandparent.
“I think we’re speaking far less words than what we are typing.”
Rather than treating kindness as something reserved for charity appeals or major events, he believes parents can make empathy part of normal family life.
That could mean encouraging children to greet somebody who appears lonely, helping someone struggling with their shopping, checking on a neighbour or simply asking youngsters to pay attention to the people around them.
“We saw from our parents how they sympathised [with others], how they were showing empathy to the people who were less fortunate than us, and then it just transferred onto us,” he said.
“Now we are discussing [it] with our children, and we’re showing them by example as well.”
