Three Tips to Help Children Learn Patience

Family amusement center A Maze’n Farmyard is located approximately one hour from Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, in Eden Valley. Designed to entertain people of all ages, A Maze’n Farmyard features a few attractions that test the patience of children and adults alike, including a 20,000-square-foot maze and mini-golf course.

While patience is a beneficial ability for people of any age, it is also a learned skill that does not come naturally to children. Here are several strategies parents can use to teach it to their child:

Start with short waits
As with any learned skill, patience does not develop right away. Introducing young children to delayed gratification in small segments of a minute or two is more effective. Over time, parents can lengthen these sessions until their children are waiting patiently for increasingly longer periods of time.

Participate in slow activities
In modern life, speed has become the primary focus for many activities, which doesn’t reinforce patience when kids need to wait. Replacing recreations like video games with slower ones like board games shows children that there is enjoyment without near-instant gratification.

Promote self-control
Patience is heavily tied to such feelings as eagerness and weariness. For this reason, children learning the ability must be taught to control their actions and emotions. It’s also important for them to understand the necessity of self-control; it helps them recognize how impatience won’t get them what they want and demonstrates that self-control works better.