Books to teach empathy

[Joni13]

My son (almost 5) is, as far as I can tell, kind and helpful at school and with his friends. At home is a different story. We’ve had problems with hitting and kicking, rudeness and generally not being v kind or grateful to me and his dad. I am heavily pregnant and he also is seemingly having a hard time understanding when I am tired/can’t do things for him instantly.

I’m looking for books that will help him understand empathy a little better, and that other people sometimes have needs too. He obviously understands to an extent, as he is kind to friends, but we need it to extend to home a little more, and our talks with him seem to have reached a limit!

I think lots of books teach it by osmosis, I think ones that teach it purposefully are likely to be a bit pompous and lecturing.

What kids of things do you read to him usually?

Yeah I get that, we obviously have a lot of books that have those kind of themes (don’t most children’s books?!), I guess I’m looking for something a little more direct, maybe modelling behaviours he’ll want to emulate. Maybe something focussed on the home, rather than friends.

I kind of agree with Ddakji about how some books specifically aimed to teach such things can be a bit naff.

Maybe not empathy specifically, but I really rate the Tom Percival series aimed at supporting children to recognise and understand how to handle different emotions. The Mr Men Discover You series is quite good for this age group too. Rachel Bright also has a serious about emotions (dinosaur themed, all titled the something saurus).

Good luck

I'm not sure it's really empathy you want.
You're wanting him, as a 5yo, to realise that Mum, who is practically a superhero to them at that age, is tired because she's pregnant so doesn't want to do things that he wants to do. Children far older find that annoying.

I think if you push that too far at that age, you could end up with him resenting the baby before baby's here.

I'd go for praise here. Ask him to help, praise him to the skies and tell him what a good job you've got such a big wonderful boy to help. Little things, like picking something up, fetching it for you etc.
You can't do something? Have a giggle about how funny Mummy is with the baby in her tummy-maybe even see if he's happy to put a cushion on his front and make him laugh about it. Tell him it's like always having a football on your front.

Maybe try a few new baby books - you may find one that mentions Mummy being tired. Be careful with them though; I found an awful lot had a section where the child is jealous of the new baby, which can put ideas into their head.

Shirley Hughes has some lovely books which depict mum pregnant. There's one Xmas themed which I liked.Angel Mae