{"id":69837,"date":"2024-03-07T17:12:19","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T10:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alternatech.net\/?p=69837"},"modified":"2024-03-07T17:12:19","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T10:12:19","slug":"teaching-kids-about-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/teaching-kids-about-responsibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Kids About Responsibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teaching Kids About Responsibility is About More than Just Chores\n
Don\u2019t equate obedience with responsibility\n
There is a significant difference between obedience and responsibility. If your child does the dishes because you told him to, you\u2019re not teaching him to be responsible\u2026you\u2019re teaching him to obey a direct order. I\u2019m not saying that\u2019s a bad thing. Even the most permissive or gentle parents expect their kids to follow certain orders.\n
Make chores about helping others, not following orders\n
If you just hand your kids a chore chart and say, \u201cIt\u2019s your job to complete all of these tasks each week,\u201d we\u2019re basically back to simply raising obedient kids. They\u2019ll do it because you said so, end of the story.\n
Instead, take the time to explain to your kids why everyone has to do chores. Help them see how their contribution helps the entire family. How when you all work together- when you all take responsibility for the things that need to be done- everyone has more time for the more enjoyable things in life.\n
Tell them honestly, \u201cMommy works all day. When I get home, my feet really hurt and I\u2019m so tired. When you take out the trash and wash the dishes for me, it helps me so much because I can sit and take some pressure off my feet.\u201d Knowing that they\u2019re helping you in a very real way shows them that being responsible is something to be proud of.\n
Teach them how to do things for themselves\u2026and actually LET them do it\n
A big part of teaching responsibility to our kids means taking a step back and letting them learn how to do things for themselves. Sometimes, that\u2019s easier said than done. We see our kids struggling to do something, so we step in and do it for them.\n
Worse, we want a chore done a specific way, so we hover, bark orders, and \u201ctsk\u201d at them the entire time. Ultimately, they feel like they can\u2019t do it to your satisfaction, so they don\u2019t even bother trying. Or they\u2019ll do the bare minimum because they know that you\u2019ll redo it after them anyway.\n
It\u2019s not enough to teach kids to do things for themselves. We have to actually stay out of their way and LET them do it, even if it means that it\u2019s not exactly done the way we\u2019d do it. Oh, and if you do have to redo it after them, at least wait until they\u2019re not around.\n
Now, if you find that your kids are doing a cruddy job with a specific chore on purpose, then you can step in and say, \u201cI know what you\u2019re doing here and it\u2019s not going to fly. If you choose to do it the wrong way, you\u2019ll have to do it again.\u201d That teaches them that responsibility isn\u2019t just doing something\u2026it\u2019s doing it right.\n
Let them to work for what they want\n
I have two ways of thinking when it comes to paying kids for doing chores. On the one hand, I feel like it\u2019s a good way to teach them the value of hard work and about what to expect in the real world. We do X, we get paid $Y.\n
On the other hand, though, I think it\u2019s important that everyone in the family has unpaid chores. Remember, the biggest lesson our kids should learn from these tasks is that families have a responsibility to help each other.\n
Besides, in the real world, no one pays mom to wash the dishes or do the laundry. Just like there\u2019s a difference between obedience and responsibility, there\u2019s a difference between responsibility and a job. Yes, working is part of being responsible, but like chores, it\u2019s really only a small part of it.\n
There are so many things that we have to do that no one pays us for that are just part of being a responsible adult and taking care of ourselves. Like washing our dishes or doing our laundry, for example.\n
But then we\u2019re back to the first hand. We want to teach our kids the value of hard work- and part of that is teaching them the MONETARY value of it. We don\u2019t want to just hand them everything they want on a silver platter. Instead, we want them to EARN it.\n
Teach kids the difference between a responsibility and a job\n
So, here\u2019s what I propose we do instead. First, start each week by dividing up the chores that MUST be done, like cleaning tasks. No one gets paid for these things because they\u2019re family obligations.\n
Then, make a list of extra tasks. Things that don\u2019t need to be done, but that it would be nice to have done, or things that should be done at some point. In other words, necessary but not urgent. Like cleaning out the garage, gathering too-small clothes for the donation bin, and so on.\n
Next, assign a fair monetary value to these tasks based on the amount of labor involved. For example, cleaning the garage would earn more than gathering up clothes to donate because it\u2019s more difficult and time-consuming. Outline your expectations for the task, too. If you\u2019ll only pay out once the entire garage is sparkling-clean and organized, make that clear upfront.\n
Then, tell your kids that at some point each of these tasks will be assigned as unpaid chores (because they really DO have to get done sometime). For now, though, they\u2019re voluntary and paid. Your kids can choose which they want to do and receive a fair wage for doing them, which they can use to pay for the things that they want.\n
Bottom line, completing a list of chores isn\u2019t what responsibility is all about. It\u2019s not even about learning that nothing in life is free and that we have to work for what we want. Sure, those things matter a lot, but they\u2019re still only a small part of the overall lesson.\n
True responsibility is recognizing that our actions affect others. That each and every one of us has a duty both to ourselves and to others. That we are all in this together, and no one is entitled to anything beyond what everyone is entitled to. In other words, no one is better than anyone else.\n
Most important of all, it\u2019s about raising kids that say, \u201cI must do something,\u201d rather than passing the buck to someone else or saying, \u201cSomeone really should do something about this.\u201d THAT is the truest value of responsibility.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Teaching Kids About Responsibility is About More than Just Chores Don\u2019t equate obedience with responsibility There is a significant difference between obedience and responsibility. If your child does the dishes because you told him to, you\u2019re not teaching him to be responsible\u2026you\u2019re teaching him to obey a direct order. I\u2019m not saying that\u2019s a bad\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":69844,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Don\u2019t equate obedience with responsibility There is a significant difference between obedience and responsibility...","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[642],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-69837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-moral-story"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Teach-your-children-to-work-for-the-things.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}