What Can You Do To Make Your Child More Independent?

As your child enters the toddler and school-age years, you want to gradually teach them the skills he needs to function independently. One way to do this is to not do tasks for him that he can already do on his own. For example, if he knows how to sweep and mop his bedroom floor but the room looks messy, don't clean the room for him. Instead, make him clean it himself. If necessary, take away his favorite privileges until he cleans up. Here are more ways to make your child independent.

Let Them Experience Mistakes

If you try to prevent every mistake in your child's life, he will never know how to learn from his mistakes and develop a strategy for doing better next time. If you already taught your child how to organize his homework assignments and he still forgets his assignments, let him experience the consequences of his actions.

Don't Let Them Be Idle

Since household chores are a part of daily life, a child must learn certain skills that will enable him to do these tasks as an adult. Assign weekly chores to your child and start by demonstrating how to do them. Then let him do the tasks with your supervision. Finally, create his chore list and have him do the tasks on his own.

Create A Consistent Routine

This ties into the previous point. When kids have structure in the home, they're likely to complete the chores that you have for them in a consistent manner. In addition, they need a routine because once they become adults, they will need to create and follow their own routines without you being there to make sure that they are on task.

Let Them Pick Their Own Outfits

At a certain age, you want to let your kids pick their own outfits to wear during the day or week. By doing this, you're letting your child develop his own sense of style and it takes the load off you. Occasionally you'll need to check in to make sure that their outfits are appropriate for the weather or occasion.

Enroll Them In Extracurricular Activities

If your child is exploring certain interests or you notice certain talents in her, enroll her in some extracurricular activities. This teaches her independence in certain ways. She learns time management skills by having to set aside time in her schedule to practice her craft so that she can excel in the activity. She is also taking responsibility for exploring her own interests as opposed to you choosing interests for her.

Have Teens Run Errands For You

If you have teenagers, let them learn independence and assist you by running errands during the week. Teach them how to go to the grocery store and stay within budget when buying items. Give them cash along with a grocery list. Tell them that they should only buy what is on the list so that they will have enough money when they arrive at the checkout line. Teach them the process of going to a bank and depositing cash or checks there.

Have Them Learn A Trade

Another idea would be to have your teens learn a trade before they enter adulthood. This teaches them different life skills that might also help them develop a fruitful career without attending college. Some public high schools offer vocational courses in subjects such as barbering, carpentry, and electrician. Your child can also learn a trade at a local community college.

Teach Them How To Cook

As your child gets older, he should learn how to make basic meals on his own. There will be times when you will be too busy or sick to cook for everyone, and your child can cook a simple meal for himself instead of eating unhealthy fast food. Slow cooker recipes are excellent for kids to make by themselves because they can throw all the ingredients in one pot and cook the meal on low heat for a few hours.

Children need basic life skills in order to depend less on you as they enter adulthood. It may feel exhausting to teach these skills to your kids when they don't get it right during the first few times, but if you're consistent and patient, they will succeed at these skills.