Growing Self-Compassionate Children

A Family Guide for Nurturing Resiliency and Kindness

Integrating self-compassion practice into family life is a profound gift that parents can give to their children and to themselves.

Here you will learn how to make self-compassion an active practice for the whole family—with over 70 activities, crafts, meditations, and games.

Self-compassion—being kind to yourself when things are hard—is a valuable quality for parents to model and to cultivate in their children—and studies show that it also builds emotional resilience.

This guide for parents explains the benefits of teaching children about self-compassion, and it offers advice, encouragement, and practices to enrich family life. Wendy O’Leary and Louise Shanagher, who have an extensive background and expertise in mindfulness, children’s education, and psychology, introduce the basic concepts of self-compassion, along with the benefits and the research that supports the practice.

In communicating self-compassion to children, the authors emphasize the importance of focusing on a child’s inherent value rather than on their external achievements and specify the benefits of “self-compassion” over “self-esteem.” Crucially, they show us that self-compassion also includes an embodied, felt sense of deep care and love for ourselves.

©2025 Wendy O’Leary and Louise Shanagher (P)2025 Shambhala Publications