How to Talk to Kids About Poverty and Homelessness: DEI Parent Guidebooks

By Trish Allison

The purpose of this guidebook (and all of our guidebooks) is to enrich your child's education with DEI morals (empathy, kindness, and respect for EVERYONE). Specifically here, and using our typically succinct writing style, our goal is to help you guide your child toward kindness and respect for poor people. 

 

You'll find step-by-step instructions for:  

 

- Subtly learning your child's true opinion of poverty
- Explaining the basics about poverty
- Discussing poverty stereotypes
- Responding to common questions from kids about poverty and homelessness

- Cultivating a home environment that fosters empathy for poor people.

 

Please note: Instead of general advice like 'be a good role model' or 'talk about feelings,' our guidebooks provide specific age-appropriate examples and instructions for integrating diversity and inclusion values into daily life at home. 
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: DEI for Parents
• Release date: Apr 27, 2024
• ISBN: 9798201670436

Trish Allison

Raising two children in a non-traditional family gives Trish a unique perspective on the importance of teaching kids that everyone deserves kindness and respect.  She combined her experience as a parent, her career as a technical writer, countless hours of child psychology research, a degree in English from U.C. Berkeley, and a long-ignored passion to write something meaningful -- into a collection of DEI parenting guidebooks.  The goal of the guidebooks is not to brainwash children into a 'socialist' way of thinking, but to simply, honestly, and at an appropriate age-level, discuss and respond to children's curiosity about contemporary cultural issues.

Book preview

Copyright

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

HOW TO TALK TO KIDS ABOUT POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS

First edition. April 2024

Copyright © 2024 Trish Allison.

ISBN: 9798201670436

Written by Trish Allison.

NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s (and publisher’s) exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.

Introduction

The first time your child becomes aware of poverty could be when they see a homeless person on the street. Or maybe they have a friend who consistently wears the same tattered clothes every day.

As heartbreaking as these visions can be for a young person, it's our job as adults to help them understand that we’re more than our financial circumstances. As they witness poverty and look for answers, the goal is to help them get their answers from someone they love and trust. You.

No worries though—you don't have to become an expert in socioeconomics to guide kids toward understanding the realities of poverty. Most kids don’t need (or want) complicated details.

But it is important to help them understand that the majority of poor people's lives have devolved as a result of circumstances that are completely out of their control. It’s not because they made bad choices.

Yes, it can be a scary topic, but kids need to know that poor people didn’t do anything wrong and therefore deserve the same kindness and respect as everyone else.

"As parents, we want to protect our children from the more frightening aspects of life, including homelessness and poverty. But children see more than we think they do – and like so many complicated issues, we want them to get their information from us, not TV or their friends. Importantly, children have an innate desire to help others and are interested in social issues. We can foster this natural tendency and channel it into action by having open, honest, intentional conversations about the issues