One of the most important acts in life is to accept responsibility. Learning from an early age makes things much easier.
To accept responsibility for your actions is a testament to a quality character. What I mean is, accepting responsibility prevents you from turning into the perpetual victim. It prevents you from growing into a selfish and callous person.
The key to accepting responsibility lies in childhood development. Yes, it starts from the beginning. This is where the ability to accept their responsibilities is learned much easier and becomes a permanent part of who we are.
Teaching them right
So, what is our part in this as parents? Well, there are ways we can teach our children to accept their responsibilities. Since it’s one of the most important aspects of developing quality human beings, I think everyone should understand how this works. We can actually frame the rest of our child’s life by teaching these disciplines.
1. Show them connections
In life, I have noticed the correlation between cause and effect. This connection has helped me more than anything when it comes to making decisions. Cause and effect also help us understand our responsibilities in certain situations. For instance, a child can only understand how a toy becomes broken by the haphazard treatment they use while playing with the object.
They quickly see their part in the situation. So, teaching your child to accept their responsibility can be done by showing them these connections between what they do and what happens as a result. It’s a clear point that can be seen or heard. As the child sees the result of something they have done, they will realize the responsibility on their part.
2. Stand your ground
In order to accept responsibility, a child must not get away with things by flashing an innocent smile. Many times, parents will let things go because their child looks cute and uses charms to get away divert attention away from them. This can quickly turn into a habit and then into a lifestyle. Unfortunately, these children turn into adults who do the same things.
Start in the beginning and never let your child get the upper hand when they’ve done something wrong. All you’re doing is being an enabler and causing pain for those who know your child as an adult. This same behavior will cause pain for many other people who were raised to accept their responsibilities. Honestly, you don’t know how much damage is done by just refusing to stand your ground with your child.
3. Appreciate honesty
When your child does fess up about behavior or a mistake, take a quick pause. Let’s try and hold our cool when this happens to show that honesty is actually a good thing. Now, I don’t mean you should let the child get away with anything. I mean that you should stay calm and explain things to them.
Even while punishment may be necessary, you can do this in a calm manner as well. The key is to not make your child stop coming to you with the truth by using fear. Instead, praise them just a little for their ability to tell the truth. It’s a giant step.
4. Mistakes promote learning
Another way to help children accept their responsibility is by showing them how mistakes teach things. Every time we do something or make a mistake, there are consequences, this is true, but there are also lessons. The lessons we learn when we do something wrong will guide us through life.
If we do not take responsibility, we cannot grow. We can be stuck with an immature mentality. To help children understand this, always talk about what was learned from the incident.
5. There’s power in responsibility
If you teach your child that power comes from being responsible for their actions, they are more likely, to tell the truth. When they’ve failed they need to understand that accepting their part in the situation gives them a certain amount of power over the failure.
Taking responsibility allows the child to take action themselves and not grow into passive people who do not know how to fix problems. This can be seen in many adults today who lack the upbringing that they should have attained.
6. Irresponsibility hurts
At an early age, a child needs to learn just how much being irresponsible hurts others. If you aren’t able to take rightful blame for what you’ve done, then others may have to take the blame. This can be incredibly hurtful to others. Most of the time hurt comes in adulthood where a person has failed to accept responsibility for most of their lives.
So, it’s important to stress just how much damage the lack of responsibility can cause.
Take Responsibility and Grow
Again, I stress how important it is to start from the beginning with teaching a child to accept their responsibility. When a child is raised to be kind and considerate in this way, they will also grow to be a kind and considerate adult.
If you’re struggling with this issue a little later on, it’s not too late. Spend time with your child, no matter what age, and help them understand the importance of this issue. Not only will you be saving their lives, but also the lives of anyone else they meet. I hope this helped.
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