Is your son not responsible? When parents feel that their children are not responsible enough, they often feel hopeless. Therefore, in this Psychology-Online article: how to help my child be responsible, we offer 10 tips on how to help children foster their responsibility that can be very beneficial.
Index
- How to help a child to be responsible: 10 tips
- Educate in values
- Paternal example
- Share family chores
- School responsibilities and their consequences
- Autonomy
- Conflict resolution
- Decision making
- Rules and limits
- Reinforcements and congratulations
- Talk about responsibility
How to help a child to be responsible: 10 tips.
Responsibility is what we understand to be one of the qualities of the people that leads to fulfillment of obligations, to care in decision-making, to carry out certain activities or to care for another person or object. Therefore, it is important to educate for it since children are young and, therefore, here are 10 tips to encourage responsibility in children.
1. Educate in values.
How to help my child to be responsible? Responsibility is a value that goes hand in hand with commitment, obligation and duty. Therefore, it is recommended to educate children so that they learn to value their behaviors responsible, since this can allow them a greater feeling of self-confidence, security, a better coexistence, among others.
In addition, it is recommended to promote attitudes that encourage value of responsible behaviors directed towards oneself, towards tasks and duties, towards economic consumption, towards society and towards the people around us.
Thus, educating in values promotes healthy development for children. But it is not only important to educate children in relation to responsibility as a value, but also in relation to other values, such as friendship, respect, tolerance, honesty, gratitude, followed by a long etcetera.
2. Paternal example.
If you want your child to be responsible, it is very important to bear in mind that parents are a relevant figure for children, that is, they are a role model, since in children the imitation learning, known as the vicarious learning. In this case, it is the parents' responsibility to show themselves as A good example to follow in relation to their conducts and responsible behaviors, such as commitment, carrying out tasks, obligations, decision-making, taking care of their children, among others.
Parents are often people of admiration and encouragement for children. Children need role models and behavior in order to grow and develop, so it is important that parents can give their children good role models. By demonstrating your qualities you can influence your children in a beneficial way, allowing them to strive to develop the same qualities as their parents.
3. Share family tasks.
How to help my child to be responsible? Sharing family household chores with children can be very useful for children to get used to having responsibilities. Thus, they can be distribute equitably, depending on age and difficulty, the different tasks around the house. For example, children can be in charge of preparing their clothes for the next day, setting the table before dinner, picking up their room and their toys when they have finished playing with them, as well as if they dirty the floor they can also take care of sweep it up.
If the child does not perform her tasks well but shows her effort, he should not be punished, but it is preferable to thank and congratulate her effort and collaboration, but what he has not done correctly must also be corrected so that he can improve for the future occasions.
It is a good way for children to learn what obligations are and prepare for their future family life. In this sense, making children responsible for some of the tasks around the house can promote their development in terms of respect, collaboration, self-confidence, responsibility, effort, perseverance, among others.
4. School responsibilities and their consequences.
To help children to be responsible, it is recommended to hold children responsible by assigning them tasks that they must do or encouraging their commitment to homework and school obligations. When school hours are over, it is highly recommended that children feel responsible for doing their homework, so better school performance will also be encouraged.
What to do if your child does not want to study?
Like all tasks and obligations, they must have their consequences if they are not fulfilled. The first few times you can give a wake up call, explaining, for example, the benefits of completing tasks (doing homework will be good to learn better). In cases where the child ignores the explanation of his parents, you can resort to marking some study habits and routines. However, if non-compliance is very common in the child, you should resort to having a more serious conversation, in which they may appear negative reinforcement, hinting at the disappointment that the little responsibility of the child causes the parents. Seeing that parents are not upset by how their child has failed to fulfill his obligations can make them want to change their bad habit of not doing homework. You will find more information in this article: my son does not want to study, what do I do?
5. Autonomy.
How to help my child to be responsible? As far as is fair it is recommended leave personal space for the child, so that she can have autonomy. The purpose of empowering children is that they can solve their problems by themselves, although these are minor problems. You always have to leave space and autonomy depending on the age of the children and taking into account the difficulty and the situations in which they may find themselves.
Giving autonomy is the solution to not always decide for them and foster your own judgment of decision. If they are not given autonomy, it will be the parents who have the responsibility to decide for their children.
6. Conflict resolution.
This advice is closely related to giving autonomy to children, since the fact of giving autonomy implies that children learn to be capable of resolve your own conflicts and problems, either with themselves or with others. However, the seriousness of the conflict situation in which the child finds himself in relation to her age must always be taken into account. Sometimes, depending on the characteristics of the conflict, it may be more appropriate for the parents to act and not the children, such as if These are situations in which important medical decisions must be made and the child is too young to understand her situation. In this article you can see how to resolve a conflict assertively.
7. Decision making.
This council is also closely linked to autonomy and conflict resolution. Well, he must be given the necessary autonomy so that he can decide how to solve his problems, what decision he must make to put an end to conflictive situations.
That is why it is good and recommended enhance the ability to make decisions, for example, often giving you two options to choose from. In this case, it is also recommended that the freedom to make your own decisions is commensurate with his age. Thus, if the child makes a bad decision and shows that he has made that decision by trying to do the right thing even if he was wrong, he should not be punished for it. If one day he makes a bad decision, he must be made to understand that thanks to that mistake he can learn from what happened to take it into account in the next decisions that he has to make. In this article you can see an effective method to decision making.
8. Rules and limits.
How to help my child to be responsible? Establishing appropriate rules and limits at home is highly recommended for the child to grow up learning to be responsible. In this way, children from a very young age already know what is expected of them: that they comply with the rules and established limits. In addition, they learn that if they are fulfilled they will receive the pride of the parents and maintain a good relationship with them, on the other hand, if they are violated, they can have negative consequences.
The fact of setting family rules and limits does not imply that children always comply with them, at some point they will be breached and, it is at that moment when they are You must resort to what was explained above about school consequences, which can be consequences that can be extrapolated to other situations, such as in the context family.
9. Reinforcements and congratulations.
In the same way that failure to comply with tasks, limits and rules entails a series of of negative consequences, the fact of fulfilling them also has its rewards and consequences positive. That will help your child to be responsible.
So when the child is responsible, to help keep the child responsible, it is recommended that be rewarded in some way, not necessarily with material objects. A hug, a kiss, a congratulation, are examples that could be positive.
10. Talk about responsibility.
Finally, the last tip is to talk about responsibility with the child. It is recommended explain what it is, the benefits it brings, the negative consequences if he is not responsible, among others. Evidencing everything related to being responsible can encourage the child to want to grow up being responsible, to want to commit to her obligations, and so on. In this article you can see how to communicate better with your children.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to How to help my child be responsible, we recommend that you enter our category of Education and study skills.
Bibliography
- Baratu, I. (s.f.). Stewardship guide. Educate by sharing family tasks.
- Durán, A., Tébar, M.D., Ochando, B., Martí, M.A., Bueno, F.J., Pin, G., Cubel, M.M., and Genís, M.R. (2004). Didactic manual for the parents' school.
