what age did you start teaching your kids to be charitable

[starlily]

I just introduced the idea of the Spark of Love toy drive today to J1, and honestly it still went over her head a bit.

ETA: I also think that N is too young to be at any shelter, only because needing to watch him will probably detract from your volunteer duties. I think that's something best saved for when he's more independent.

[pierogigirl]

We've been doing Toys For Tots since before they were born. We try to talk about how fortunate we are and that we should be thankful and help others when we can. The kids brought food/money to school/daycare for food drives. When they're a little older I'd like to serve dinner at Ronald McDonald house. We try to put some charitable acts in our advent calendar and I know they talk about charity/helping at daycare. I'm not sure they really get it yet. Hopefully it will be something that sinks in as they grow up.

[heygrey]

i work at a homeless shelter and we don't allow children under the age of 16 in our kitchen. knives, hot food, huge stoves/ovens, people moving quickly... too much liability. that stuff aside, it's a fairly rough place. not all of our guests have the wherewithal to be appropriate in front of children.

that said, we have a ton of opportunities that i'm excited to share with R. we do a "stuff the bus" with winter coats/clothes/socks in the fall - going to buy bags of socks, or bringing our own gently used items and talking about what those things will be used for and how much they will be appreciated. we're have an ongoing turkey drive from sept-dec for our holiday meals. if it's not meal time our kitchen coordinator is awesome about showing kids around and answering their questions when a family drops off turkeys. in february we participate in Coldest Night of the Year which is a 5k to raise money for shelters.

obviously there would be a lot more opportunities as you branch out into other charities, but at this age i would focus mostly on giving. when he's older it's good to introduce him to "these are the people we've been giving to all these years," but, imo, he is WAY to young for that now. just in talking with my coworkers, they haven't really let their kids be privvy to their workplace until they were 6-8 at the earliest. there is a lot that happens there - addictions, abuse, mental illness, scary diseases like HIV and Hep C. i don't want R to live in a bubble, but i want him to be at an age where we can talk about those things and he has some capacity to process them before he's introduced to the rougher sides of a shelter.

[VillainV]

I think there are age-appropriate things that you can do from a young age. Remember there are other options besides shelters. Consider serving a meal at a nursing home or even just keeping the residents company. Helping to donate and sort through old clothes or toys. Making cards for military stationed overseas. I think like Kirkette said, if you explain in simple terms what you're doing (helping people, etc) then it will become a part of their lives as just one of those things that we DO.

[stealthmom]

I started helping to make dinner for homeless families a few years ago, so maybe 3? It's not really teaching but more leading by example. At this point all he knows is we have dinner with families who happen to be homeless.

[Odonata]

I have nothing to add but was popping in here b/c this was exactly the conversation H and I had last night. We've got a few years to go, of course, but both are so involved in community service and feel the same way about DD and her view of this season (besides all year)

[arch01]

we started earlier this year with having him help me pick out school supplies for a drive at my office. I told him that we were buying things for other kids that weren't able to afford their own. He picked out colors of folders, quantities, etc-so I used it as another teaching experience for him.

We talked about having him go through his toys to donate this year but decided he's too young. We'll do that next year.

We want to start volunteering in the soup kitchen when he's about 5 if they'll allow children. We'll do other things before that.

ETA: One of the other things I plan on doing is giving him a few dollars next year and having him pick out canned goods to donate. He doesn't really understand money yet, except that we don't buy certain things every week because they're not on sale/a good price.

[Ashley&Scott]

We're planning to have M help us shop for donations & take them to the donation center this year. We're donating to a shelter for women & children.