Parenting Tips: Teaching Your Child Responsibility

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The objective of any parent is to rear their child to be a responsible adult. In order to do this a parent must instill in their children and teenagers a sense of responsibility for their own actions at a young age.

It is important for children to be given responsibilities no matter how young they are. Small children can help their caretakers pick up their toys or do other simple tasks. This builds confidence which becomes more important the older they get. Parents do their children a great disservice by not giving them appropriate amounts of responsibility when they are young. Giving them responsibility not only builds their capacity in this area but it builds their self-esteem and their sense of independence by allowing them to experience accomplishment.

Set your children up for success. As parents, we must realize that not every child is capable of doing every task well. Also, we must understand that we, as adults, have much more experience doing the task that we are asking them to be responsible for and naturally we will be better at it that they are. For instance, if your teenager’s responsibility is to keep her room clean, write down what you expect in a specific manner. She may not think that cleaning her room includes dusting her computer or making her bed every day. If you write it down, she can see what is expected of her and the lines of communication are much clearer.

Make the task simple enough for them to manage but challenging enough for them to improve upon. If you ask your teenage boy to mow the lawn, start by showing him the proper way to do the task then ask him if he feels like confident in accomplishing the task successfully. If he seems hesitant, suggest that he start with the front yard only or break the task up into chunks that he can handle. Remember, success breeds success and the goal is for them to succeed in fulfilling their responsibility.

Thank your teen for their endeavors. Regardless of what they say, teens are seeking parental approval. If they do not get it, their self-esteem is damaged. When a teen is appreciated for the role that they play in the family, a sense of connectedness is established and they are much more likely to want to follow the models set before them by being more responsible individuals and behaving more appropriately.

We all want our children to grow up to be responsible adults. While rearing children is often marked by power struggles and battles for control, setting forth reasonable expectations of your child makes them more responsible individuals. Not only are you teaching them to act autonomously and successfully but you are teaching them that they are valued individuals that can make a difference in their world.