5 tips For Raising Generous, Self-Sufficient Children
It’s our job to teach our children to be successful and self-sufficient. Here are 5 parenting tips to get you on the right track.
Let Your Children Fail
It’s often hard to let our children fail because it can feel like we are failing as well, but failing is an essential part of growing and learning. The ability to get up after falling is an invaluable skill to learn at a young age. Children who learn this at a young age don’t give up when things get hard. They fight for things and learn how to solve problems on the fly. It sometimes does our children a disservice when we do their school projects for them or hold their hand when it’s unnecessary. Sometimes it’s good for a child to figure it out on their own.
Let them read what they want
No matter what your children’s interest are, encourage them to read. The more children read, the more they excel academically in every subject.
Teach Your Children About Service
Teaching your children to focus on others instead of themselves will help curb entitlement and selfishness. We recommend encouraging daily acts of kindness instead of annual grand gestures such as soup kitchens on Christmas or visiting an Old Folks Home on Thanksgiving. It is more influential to encourage service every single day. Encourage them to rake the neighbor’s leaves or throw away their peers’ trash at lunch. Only good can come from serving others.
Try To Avoid Paying Your Children To Do Chores
If we pay our children to clean their room then they will grow up with the impression that they are entitled to awards for everything they do. We want our children to learn to do chores without expecting anything in return.
Stick To A Bedtime
A study published in 2013 in the journal Pediatrics found that seven-year-olds who had irregular bedtimes had more behavioral problems than did those with consistent bedtimes. Children need structure and consistency and one way to teach them that is through following a bedtime schedule.
One of the best things you can do as a parent is to make decisions based on a long-term perspective instead of what is convenient at the moment. It’s our job to help our children grow up to be independent, generous and self-sufficient.
