Welcome Guest Blogger Jenny Perkins is an Animal Behavior Specialist and a passionate writer. She loves to write about the nutrition, health, and care of dogs. She aims at providing tips to dog owners that can help them become better pet parents. She writes for the blog Here Pup.

 

Parenting is a tough job that comes with a massive set of challenges; one of these is teaching your kids essential life skills. As a parent, you need to set the right examples for your kids, but we are human beings and tend to make mistakes. There are times when we may be unconsciously encouraging wrong behaviors in our kid’s that may affect their development.

One such example is not letting your kids participate in any chores or helping them realize what their responsibilities are. What some parents may not recognize is that allowing your kids to do things for themselves enables them to believe in their abilities and helps them develop a sense of responsibility which is imperative for achieving success, both in our personal and professional lives.

So how do we ensure that we raise kids who can become responsible humans and citizens of the world? Well here are six fun tips to teach your kids responsibility and self-efficacy:

Let Your Child Care for Others

The realization of being able to impact another being’s life is a great way to boost your child’s self-esteem. For instance, if you adopt a pet, assign your kids pet-related tasks that they can manage. Start off by assigning them the responsibility of feeding the canine his healthy treats. Take your toddlers along when you take the pup for a walk; ask them to help when you bathe the pooch by handling you the required supplies.

Help your kid understand that a dog is a living creature like humans and has his own physical and emotional needs. This will help them develop life skills such as empathy and kindness.

Also, teach them that they are accountable for their interactions with other humans. If your child hurts their sibling or friends, help them realize the impact of their actions or words. Don’t just force them to apologize, instead help them acknowledge their mistake and find out a way of making up to the person they have hurt.

 

Let them Clean up Messes

It is essential to help your kids develop the habit of cleaning after themselves. Honestly, we see many adults littering public spaces- and it is all because they don’t realize the responsibility of picking up their own messes. Initially getting them to do so will mean more work for you as your toddler might not do an excellent job but make sure you don’t sound judgmental and praise them for playing their part. As they grow up, hand them their scattered toys or cluttered clothes by telling them that we always clean up ourselves.

Let Your Kids Solve their Problems

Being parents we can’t see our kids stuck in a situation and rush to bail them out. Whether it is figuring out the answer to a sum or making amends with someone, let your child find a way out. You can be available to help, but let them be the problem-solver.  Let them have the opportunity of experiencing a sense of accomplishment after they successfully figure out a solution.

 

Allow them to Participate and Help Out

Considering the fast-paced lives we lead, it may become challenging to slow down. It’s what’s important to provide your kids the opportunity to contribute and experience new activities. Exposure is crucial for your child’s development. So let them help around even if it means that the job won’t be done with perfection.

Start small by letting your kids help with folding the laundry, setting up the table or assisting you with gardening. Make these chores fun and cheerful and an experience that they look forward to, eventually they will start doing the chores by themselves without needing your assistance at all.

Help them have the Experience of Working for Pay

You can hire your children to do a few tasks that they wouldn’t usually do and enable them to experience how it works in the real world. Encourage your kids to pick up jobs from the neighborhood such as walking the neighbor’s dog or mowing their lawn.

The experience of working and earning through hard work will instill a strong sense of responsibility in your children. They will also achieve a sense of fulfillment when they can spend their own hard-earned money. They will be careful while spending it since they will know what goes into earning it.

Praise and Reward

Encouragement and motivation is the key to success for your kids. Whenever they complete a task successfully or even if they don’t succeed but put in their 100 percent, always appreciate them. Help them realize how things work in the world by rewarding them for a job well done and letting them know that being irresponsible can have consequences.

Don’t be hard on them of course.  Make sure you set an example for your children and find out ways to improve the bond you share with them.