Why We Don’t Give Our Children Responsibility

I spoke to a sold out crowd of over 220 people at Richland Academy in Richmond Hill.  The talk was about responsibility.  How do we help our children to assume responsibilities? The short answer: GIVE IT TO THEM!

Most families I know do not give their children responsibilities because of one of the following:

• It’s faster to do things themselves
• We like things done a certain way so we just do it ourselves
• We don’t believe they are capable

and the biggy…

• We don’t have a clue what to do when they don’t follow through on their responsibility, so we let them off the hook and just do it ourselves!

When we step in, children learn that they don’t need to.  They come to expect that mom and dad are standing in the wings ready to intervene and save them from their rightful jobs.

A great first step would be to simply let our children experience the outcomes of NOT assuming their responsibilities.  If you don’t put your laundry in the laundry basket – it doesn’t get washed.  If you don’t load the dishwasher mom doesn’t begin preparing the next meal.  If you leave your mitts on the school yard, you need to dig into your own allowance to replace them.  If you don’t get to the breakfast table on time you miss out on breakfast.

What responsibilities are you rescuing your child from assuming?  Why not try to let go yourself and let the chips fall where they may!  Keep you attitude positive and show faith that your child will figure it out the benefits and ways of handle their responsibilities all by themselves.