Welcome to our podcast. It is indeed a pleasure to have you. Today we will address how parents should train preschoolers to become responsible as they grow up. As we all know, responsibility is an asset.  It is described as the ability to make decisions independently and without control. I will present some facts about preschoolers to enable us understand the concept better.

By the time a child is in preschool, the child has already started to take on small tasks. Accordingly, the child is also taking care of itself and others. For example, the child is able to go to the toilet without much assistance from the parents. Ellingsen, Baker, Blacher and Crnic support this information in their book Resilient Parenting of Children at Developmental Risk across Middle Childhood. The authors published the book in twenty fourteen. Nevertheless, kids at this age are able to help in small routines at home like wiping or reporting when some things at home are not right. For example, the child is able to report when the tap is left running.

Accordingly, children learn to respect others when they are responsible. This character is also evidenced in adolescent and later into adulthood. Rempel, Ravindran, Rogers, and Magill‐Evans, twenty thirteen, postulate that children who learn to be responsible early in life develop a respectful character as the adolescents and adults. The authors also noted that children who learn to be responsible at a young age develop high moral standards later as an adolescent and even into adulthood. This is because they are able to work together with others. This makes them respect the contribution of others.

Therefore, you parents should be able to know how to teach your children about how to be responsible by giving them small chores at home and make sure that they are done. For instance, you can send the children to bring things like spoons, plates, or other small stuff from the kitchen. Moreover, you should also allow the children to do things their own way instead of setting out a strict routine of how things should be done. This will give the child a sense of pride and initiative and encourage them to be more responsible. Moreover, you should not overburden the child with duties and chores. The child should be guided only when there is a need. Burdening the child with duties will make the child get discouraged. As a result, the child will become irresponsible.

Otherwise, I am incredibly thankful for your listening. This marks the end of our podcast – teaching your child how to be responsible. Please ensure that you follow us on twitter for more podcasts.

References

Ellingsen, R., Baker, B. L., Blacher, J., & Crnic, K. (2014). Resilient parenting of children at developmental risk across middle childhood. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 35(6), 1364-1374. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.03.016

Rempel, G. R., Ravindran, V., Rogers, L. G., & Magill‐Evans, J. (2013). Parenting under Pressure: a grounded theory of parenting young children with life‐threatening congenital heart disease. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 69(3), 619-630. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2012.06044.x