Life skills and responsibility for kids
Responsibility is the most important life skill you can teach your child in other words, they are the only person ultimately responsible for their own destiny – It’s all about them!
Teachers and parents can help by providing knowledge, skills, guidance and support – but they are the only ones who can make life happen.
Sounds simple enough, but this is a surprisingly difficult concept for kids to understand – heck, even some adults don’t get it!
You can help your children grasp this concept by teaching them:
- No excuses, no blame – if they haven’t done something they were supposed to do, or perhaps they did something they shouldn’t have, children need to know that they are the ones responsible. While there may be mitigating circumstances, no one else is to blame and no one likes hearing excuses.
- A Positive can-do attitude will get them a lot further than a negative, can’t do attitude. Don’t find fault, find a solution.
- If you want something to happen, make it happen. Don’t blame someone else for not doing it or not making it happen. If your mum hasn’t made your lunch, ask to do it for her!
- Life happens – it’s not always someone's fault. Sometimes things just happen – good and bad. Don’t sweat the small stuff and move on, and don’t always look for someone to blame (or sue!)
- Be accountable for your own actions - Explain that, as their mother or father, where you are now is a result of the decisions you made in the past, and where you’ll be in 10 or 20 years, will be a result of the decisions you’ll make today and tomorrow.
Use some examples of things you’ve done well and things you haven’t done well – your kids won’t learn from the choices you’ve made in the past, but you want them to understand that life is all about the choices they make now and throughout their own life.
And the Life skills under the “Life Skills” tab on the NavBar are just as important for children as they are for adults. Read through these skills and ask yourself which ones your child could benefit from right now – and teach them these skills.
You’ll find that the other life skills will become more useful as they get older, so make sure you keep a watchful eye on their development needs.
Do you have a story or some advice that could help kids learn about responsibility? Write a page on it and help kids get ahead…
Related Topics:
Articles by Winsome Coutts:
- How to Raise Happy Kids
- Playing with Your Child – How to Start It, Why It’s So Important
- How Goal Setting can Help Your Kids
- Kids and Goal Setting, Why is it So Important?
