Training Kids to be Independent Due to my recent heart disease diagnosis, I have become even more eager in getting my two girls to be completely independent as much as possible. If there is anything they can do by themselves, they should do it. That includes Tia, the little one, who is less capable due to all sorts of limitations. If she needs to wash her hands, turn a light switch on, get something at high level, control the remote controls, adjust settings, etc; she has to do it herself. She even showers herself now and keeps her clothes away, makes her own bed, and certain other chores that gain her screen time. Tessa is pretty independent already and can almost run the household when I am down. Bless her. Yesterday, whilst I was out at a work meeting and running home late, I called them to start preparing dinner. Tia makes a good assistant. Never mind that the skin is all over the kitchen counter but when I arrived home, it was all cleaned up and the onions and garlic were ready to be chopped up, saving me precious time. In the lives of busy moms, every second counts and adds up to precious time. Children are extremely capable when given the opportunity to do it themselves. We tend to spoon feed them from young but the earlier we allow them the opportunity to think and do things hands on, the more experience and practice they get in becoming independent. I learnt this from one of my Scottish engineers who shared with me how he made his 5 year old do things I had never thought of making my own 5 year old do, such as leading them to cross the road or giving them directions how to get to certain places, reading maps, making decisions. And since then, I have started thinking of more and more areas where my girls can take care of me rather than the other way around.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 18:55:25 +0000