Compassion may be inborn in most children, but in our culture it is often supplanted by selfishness, materialism, and bad manners faster than you can say "Billy, don't spit in your teacher's face." Not surprisingly, the way to teach your children compassion is to encourage their gentle treatment of other children, animals, siblings, caretakers, and parents.
We may think we're being laid back and cutting our kids some much needed slack by overlooking sassyness, rudeness, and the occasional eye-roll, but when we consider that we're raising tomorrow's citizens, those bad manners can take on world-changing importance.
Parenthood can be the ultimate bootcamp for compassion. If, after a long exhausting day, your child tests your last nerve with fear of the dark, or a tantrum, or another imperfect behavior, your first inclination might be to time-out, limit-set, or otherwise pull rank. But if you have the patience to suss out whether there is something real about your child's complaint, you have accomplished a truly compassionate act. And set a fabulous example of gentleness and understanding that no curriculum can teach.
