How to teach children to be responsible?

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Imagine a teenager who is not very interested in school work, who leaves the house late at night and doesn’t say where they are going . . . To reduce the risks of your child getting to this point and your hair turning gray with worry, it’s important that they are encouraged to be responsible from an early age.

When interviewed on the Vida Plena*  program on Boa Vontade TV, psychologist Raquel Arantes Rabadji explained that the responsibilities of parents increase as their children get older. “A child can run, play, and throw its toys around somewhere and that’s when the parents should teach them responsibility, by telling them what should be done, 'You’re going to put your toys away there;' 'This is not the place for you to leave this.’"

Guiding them from the very beginning

EVERYBODY can collaborate with EVERYTHING

For the specialist, a very common and harmful mistake is for the parents to assign specific chores to boys and others to girls, thereby segregating the sexes. At home, for example, tasks should be shared equally. So no one will be overloaded, or  will do what they don’t like, and new experiences will be gained.

One pertinent question may arise: spoiling children; up to what point is it harmful? Does it undermine the sense of responsibility? Dr. Rabadji explains that spoiling a child too much can be extremely damaging. “It’s as if you consider that person to be useless, which is why you don’t let them do anything. That child, that son, that daughter, is going to feel incapable. That’s a very serious issue in human development,” she points out.

And the problems don’t stop there: “You have to know how to deal and work on their development, their sense of responsibility. When you spoil someone a lot that person can grow up feeling afraid, incapable, and unable to handle frustration. They may have very serious problem both during their adolescence and in adulthood.”

Teaching with love

Therefore, make sure you attribute responsibilities to your children in a balanced way. Each commitment they take on and fulfill will make them more confident in the future to handle situations at work, when dealing with money, looking after their family, and so on.

Bear in mind that a sense of responsibility should be exemplified constantly, and let the children know that there is room for growth and personal maturing. The sense of responsibility should be allied with a lot of love and guidance, considering the lack of preparation of the children and foreseeing their future concerns. Remember: teaching is one of the most powerful ways of showing Love. =)

Did you know that teaching is one of the most powerful ways of showing Love?