Easy Ways to Raise Responsible Kids – A Guide for Parents
Every parent wants to know that they have equipped their child for the real world. It is a big responsibility but one that is well worth the effort. And that is what we are talking about here – responsibility. We want to teach our children to one day become contributing members of society.
How would you define responsibility? When it comes to our kids, some might include the following:
- Learning to do what is right
- Taking care of themselves
- Making good decisions
- Lending a helping hand
- Learning to be financially savvy
- Making a difference with their lives
Yes, it is a tall order, but not one that has to be learned overnight. In fact, teaching kids to be responsible will take several years. You’ve got at least eighteen. So, relax and take the time to do it right.
Help – My Child Hits Me
Parents understand that very young children can’t communicate with words. Many young children, however, will use other means to try to get their needs across. This may mean crying, throwing a temper tantrum and even hitting. While you may expect some of this behavior from a toddler, what do you do when the hitting continues much longer than you expected?
As stated above, until your child learns to speak they will use whatever means they have to communicate. Some children will hit when they’re told no, for instance. Even though this behavior might be common, you probably don’t want your toddler to continue hitting, especially out of anger.
Teaching Conflict Resolution to Your Children
Children will be children. And if you have more than one in a room, there’s a good bet there will be an argument or conflict at some point. Teaching conflict resolution to your children will reduce your frustrations and help… Continue reading
Don’t Focus On Your Child’s Happiness!
Many parents strive to have happy kids. In their efforts, they are loath to see their children upset and seem to do anything to allay the child’s consternation. So, what child wants, child gets. Child doesn’t want, child doesn’t have to do.
There is a belief by these parents that their children will be naturally appreciative and hence will behave inordinately well. However, when their children do not behave as hoped or expected, the parents will admonish the child, advising of how well the child has it and hence should act more reasonably. Typically the child shrugs off the lecture and the parent feels more beholding to the child for upset caused by reasonable expectation and the parent winds up seeking to undo the child’s distress by giving in to the greater demands of the child. A vicious cycle ensues and eventually the child acts with a tremendous sense of entitlement, is out of control and increasingly is doing less and less in terms of reasonable expectations such as helping around the house or taking care of school work. The child does what he or she wants and literally nothing else. The parent feels impotent – helpless to do anything about the situation.
Kids out of Control? Inconsistency may be the Problem.
Jodie, a single mom of two boys, felt like her days were an endless uphill battle. After getting the boys off to school, she’d work until five p.m. and then pick them up from her parents. The boys started in on each other even before they got to the car; reporting how each other misbehaved at grandma’s, the latest complaint about an unfair dividing of a candy bar. On really bad days, there would also be a note from a teacher describing one of the kids spending most of the day “red-carded” in class. Every wednesday and alternate weekends, the boys went to their father’s house which gave her a little time to recouperate, but she’d hear complaints from her ex-husband as well about the kids’ behavior. For months, Jodie chalked these problems up to her own exhaustion, her growing depression, and the difficulties of single-parenting. When she met with a psychologist through a work-stress program, she heard something that seemed to make a lot more sense. “She told me the problem might be inconsistency. She asked me to find out how similar or different we all were in approaching the kids’ behavior in these different settings.”
Parental Spanking Linked to Aggressive Behavior in Children
A new study published in the journal Pediatrics suggests that mothers who spank their 3 year old children are placing them at risk for becoming aggressive themselves by age 5.
Three-year-old children who were spanked two or more times in… Continue reading
