How I’m Teaching My Kids to Be Do-Gooders

November 4, 2015

My son is naturally concerned for others and being generous is a quality that I make an effort to bring out in him every single day. We headed to the bake sale, which took place during the New York City Marathon, and once there we purchased our goodies and then explained to Hudson why we purchased the yummy cupcakes and cookies and who it helps. He had questions that we were happy to answer to better help him better understand the concept of raising money for a good cause.

I want my son to feel genuine gratitude for the blessings he has and there’s no better time than the Thanksgiving holiday to do it. Here are five easy ways I’m teaching my child to be a do-gooder.

1. Coordinate a closet cleanup. I recently put together clothes my kids have outgrown to donate to Goodwill. I let my son help me pick out the items from his drawers and closet and place them in plastic bags. We talked about how he’s growing up so fast and the clothes no longer fit, but how there are many children who don’t have clothes and need them. This is a start into helping my kid learn what a difference he can make in the lives of other children and their families.

2. Make your child aware of his community. At his school’s bake sale, my son picked out the cupcakes and cookies he wanted, and then my husband and I explained the small, but good, gesture organized by his school. Paying several dollars for a few baked goods to raise money for the community was a perfect opportunity to explain (and encourage) philanthropy to my kid.

3. Read them books about kindness. Books about giving, sharing, and helping others teaches children the concept of empathy. Favorites in my house: The Giving Tree and Little Blue Truck.

4. Do the good deed yourself. When kids see you doing something good, they’ll want to do the same. One mama in my neighborhood likes to donate her hair for cancer patients. Her 5-year-old daughter now wants to do the same and she donated 8 inches of her hair to the Pantene Beautiful Lengths charity campaign, which creates wigs for cancer patients.

5. Get Involved. This holiday, my familia will get involved. We’re in the process of gathering gently used toys to donate to charitable organizations, such as Toys for Tots. Let your child choose a cause by offering them some options that spark their interests. For example, If your kid is into sports, they may want to donate a soccer ball to the local Boys and Girls Club or if your niños like cooking, make a donation basket of nonperishable foods and let them bring it with you to a local soup kitchen.

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Photo: Getty

Yesenia Almonte is an experienced Editorial Beauty Director in New York City. She is widely recognized for her expertise in developing unique beauty content for a variety of top—selling publications that span a broad range of multi-media platforms. Yesenia has the ability to conceive, construct and transform beauty trends into personalized creative recommendations for diverse markets. She has comprehensive knowledge of the teen and Hispanic markets and has created a number of revenue-generating editorial packages across different mediums. Throughout her career, she has initiated collaborations with some of the foremost innovators in the creative industry, including Pat McGrath, Kenneth Willardt, Ondrea Barbe, Sarah Silver, Serge Normant, Orlando Pita and Gucci Westman.
Yesenia was most recently the Beauty Director of Seventeen. During her tenure at the magazine, she entirely redeveloped the magazine’s beauty editorial and direction by expanding and diversifying its content through creative and innovative features and looks, while also providing increased visibility to a broad range of beauty brands. In addition to overseeing the beauty content across all of Seventeen’s platforms, including seventeen.com and misquincemag.com, she created the massive multi—platform beauty franchise Seventeen’s Beauty Smarties, an initiative whereby real girl YouTube beauty vloggers create exclusive looks for the magazine and online videos. Since it’s inception, the Beauty Smarties franchise became a successful YouTube show, The Seventeen Beauty Smarties Showdown and became the backbone to the launch of Seventeen’s multichannel network on YouTube in partnership with AwesomenessTV. Yesenia edited Seventeen’s Ultimate Guide to Beauty, an in-depth how-to guide, and helped develop Seventeen’s extensive digital tool, the Seventeen Shopping Insider app. In an effort to reach readers everywhere, Yesenia also created customized beauty specials targeting the Latina and African American teen market, which have resulted in record-breaking advertising revenue for the magazine.
Prior to joining Seventeen, Yesenia served as Beauty Director of Latina Magazine, where she curated the beauty content for the Hispanic woman via the magazine and website. At Latina, she also developed Latina Beauty, a Walmart-only special interest publication for the Hispanic woman.