How to teach young child to be responsible

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Your role as a parent doesn’t start and end with taking care of everything your child needs. You have the responsibility of teaching your child to be responsible as well. When is the best time to start teaching about responsibility? The sooner, the better. Gradually though, we don’t want to overwhelm them. Instead of being responsible, they might end up hating responsibility.

 

I started teaching my son to be responsible with his health when he was barely a year old. How? I never allowed him to eat processed food. Now that he’s 10 years old, he loves eating fruits and some vegetables. He knows the importance of eating the right kind and amount of food.

 

At 7 years old, I gave him the responsibility of throwing the trash after dinner, in the garbage chute. I turned over to him the responsibility of making sure that all books are arranged well in the bookshelf.

 

At 10 years old, I gave him the task of folding small items from the laundry, after I wash it, and putting everything in the right place in the closet.

 

The older he gets, I will add more chores for him to do. Hopefully, this will help prepare him for more heavier responsibilities after finishing school.

 

What about your kids? Do they already have small responsibilities in the house?

cellular phone for kids

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My son wants to have his own cellular phone. I actually gave him one about a year or two ago but he seldom use it. His school doesn't allow grade schoolers to bring any gadget in school, including cellular phones. I could already buy a nice dress with what I spent on his mobile phone, a few since his is the cheapest in the market, so I told him I won't buy him a new one anymore.

Kids his age don't need a mobile phone yet. I had one when I was 23 years old already, a few years after the first brand of cellular phone was launched. Although he'll get left out, since most of his peers own high-end mobile phones, I want teach him that he can't have everything that he wants.

fight his own battles

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I easily get mad when someone makes fun or physically hurt my son. I have confronted kids older, and even younger, than my son whenever I see them behaving in any way that will hurt RJ's feelings or physically hurt him. I am one protective Mama.

                                                                     santaclaracountylib

But I now try to let him sort his own problems. Even if I want to throw a punch at the other kid, let him taste his own medicine, I now let my son fight his own battles and solve his 9-year-old-problems. I want him to be more independent and not depend on me with things that he can solve on his own.

math isn't hard

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Math has always been easy for RJ. I was pretty sure that finance would be on top of his career list in the future. But when they started doing long division in school, RJ started to not like Math. He doesn't want to do his homework the first day the teacher taught long division.

So we had a long talk that night. I noticed that he's just saying, "This lesson is hard" not because he finds it hard. Just the thought of doing "lots of steps" is enough to make him feel lazy to even start solving the equation. I advised him not to rush, in dividing, to avoid a wrong answer.

At the end of our long talk, he's smiling and loving math again.

crossing the street by himself

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RJ does not know how to cross the street by himself yet. During our everyday walk, from his tutor to our house, I make it a "learning experience" for him. I have been observing him and I know that it's not the right time to let-him-loose-on-the-streets just yet.

I remember learning about road and safety signs in school. I'll just have to wait for RJ to learn that in school. Then take that as a cue to slowly let him walk on the streets by himself.

save for the rainy days

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What does the idiomatic expression "save for the rainy days" mean? It means putting aside something, usually in the form of savings and investment, to be used for future needs. The best way to save is to cut back on expenses and use the saved cash to invest into something profitable.

Here are some of the things I do to save and invest.

1. Bring a calculator during grocery shopping to be able to compare the prices of different food brands.

2. I cancelled my call waiting, caller ID, call forwarding and three-way calling on our landline.

3. I don't have credit cards anymore. First and last credit card usage was 10 years  ago.

4. Instead of hiring a driver to bring my son to and from school, I got the services of a school bus instead.

5. I also cancelled our cable subscription.

6. I only buy clothes, accessories, etc during the sale season.

7.  30% of my earnings online I goes directly to the bank.

8. Invest some earnings in mutual funds.

9. Opened up an online trading account.

10. Invest in small businesses that I can do at home.

My son already has his own savings account. He opened one using the Christmas monetary gifts that he got from family and friends two years ago.

What about you, what are your ways of "saving for the rainy days"?

you don't have a Wii?!

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From nintendo.com:

Wii is not just a gaming console, it's a reason to get together with your friends and family and play today's hottest games. Wii offers legendary Nintendo franchises like Mario, Zelda and Metroid, as well as all new classics like Wii Sports and Wii Play. Create your own Mii character to star in Wii games. Play friends online over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection or use the Internet Channel to surf the net from your sofa. You can even download classic Nintendo games using the Wii Shop Channel. Take a look around and see why your TV is not complete without Wii.

My son, RJ, doesn't have a Nintendo Wii. Why? Because he already has a Nintendo DSi. His classmate though called him loser because he's the only one in school, according to that classmate, who doesn't have a Wii.

I said to RJ, "You are not a loser". In my opinion, the real losers are those people who buys things just because their neighbor or friend has one. It doesn't matter if one can afford it, what matters is one should only buy things that they need.

Should I buy him one? Maybe not now. What do you think?