17 Best Ways To Teach Duties And Responsibilities To Kids

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Every parent desires that their child grows up to be a responsible individual.However, you must first understand the importance of responsibility for kids and educate them about the significance of being responsible for their actions, whether good or bad. First, teach them about the difference between duty and responsibility.

Simple tasks such as doing the household chores, maintaining good hygiene, folding the laundry, and cleaning their room could help them learn important life lessons while making them feel responsible.

This article explains the importance of developing a sense of responsibility in kids. It also offers a few tips to help you teach your child how to become a responsible individual.

Need To Teach Responsibility To Children

孩子可以把阿布教学的责任t several benefits to the lives of your little ones. Here are a few reasons for instilling responsibility in your child(1)(2).

1. Helps gain trust and respect

当you teach your children responsibility, you teach them to be accountable. This means your child would accept the consequences for their words, deeds, and actions. They will also learn values like honesty and discipline.

Being responsible helps your child gain self-respect and respect from others.当they take responsibility and complete tasks, it can give them a feeling of fulfillment and make them feel good about themselves. Also, when they complete tasks assigned to them, other people would notice them and respect them.

2. Teaches organization

While trying to meet a commitment, your child will learn to prioritize tasks. They will also learn to manage time according to their obligations. They may even learn to prepare a list over time, thus learning organization,time-management, and decision-making skills.

3. Makes them self-independent

As being responsible is not restricted to just at home, your child would learn self-reliance and thus become a valuable member of society. Offering help to others and taking accountability for things can teach them to beself-independentand even inspire other children around them.

What Are The Duties And Responsibilities Of A Child?

Based on their age and development, here are a fewduties and responsibilitiesyou could let your child undertake(3)(4)(5).The age-wise obligations are not rigid but depend on how well your child can accept and adopt them in their routine.If they find a particular task difficult to do, be flexible enough to relax such duties.

Two- and three-year-olds

• Learning to put the groceries away
• Dressing with assistance
• Keeping the toys in their respective place after play

Four- and five-year-olds

• Helping put the dishes in the sink after a meal
• Arranging their play shelves and bookshelves
• Making their bed
• Feeding the pets

Six- and seven-year-olds

• Putting used clothes in the laundry basket
• Cleaning the floor
• Wiping the table after meals
• Packing their school bags the night before
• Participating in other small chores around the house
• Completing homework

Eight- and nine-year-olds

• Helping with the meals
• Packing meals for themselves
• Learning self-grooming
• Loading and unloading a dishwasher
• Stacking items appropriately

10- and 11-year-olds

• Changing the bed linings
• Cleaning the kitchen and bathroom
• Participating in small tasks such as raking the leaves or tending to the garden
• Gaining proficiency on the previously learned tasks
• Taking out the trash

12-year-olds and older

• Running errands
• Taking care of younger siblings
• Learning to budget money
• Helping in deep-cleaning of the house
• Car-washing

How To Teach Responsibility To Children

Here are a few strategies you could use to teach responsibility to your child（6）(7).

Teach them to clean up after themselves

The first step towards teaching responsibility to your child is to let them clean up after themselves after every activity.This involves arranging the things in a disorganized room after play or wiping the spills after meals. The best way to do this is to set an example. Let them observe you clean after yourself andmake it a habitgradually. You can also assist them in cleaning to make the task seem less daunting.

Encourage them to take initiative

If you force them to do a task, they may think of it as more ofa punishmentrather than a responsibility. Try to make the chores fun, and find a way to make them do the tasks independently to give them a sense of fulfillment and help improve their self-confidence. You could lend a helping hand only when absolutely necessary. It is alright if they do not do it perfectly, as the ultimate goal is to make them take initiative.

Teach them to help others

教他们帮助别人with their tasks, no matter how small those tasks may be.You can let them help you with age-appropriate chores and gradually encourage them to help you with tasks outside of the house.For instance, they could look after the plants in the garden or feed a few strays. As they grow older, this need to help others will come naturally to them.

Help them prepare a list

This could be a written or mental list. Preparing a list is one of the best ways to teach them self-discipline. Let them know the order of things to be followed after each task. For example, let them recollect what they must do after returning from school – whether it is putting the clothes in the laundry basket or watering the plants. You could also help them create a list of their daily chores or tasks. Ensure they complete them during the initial few days, until it becomes a habit for them. As they see their list getting shorter, their self-esteem will increase.

Make time a secondary factor

Most of the tasks you teach to young children would be new to them. Therefore, they may take more time to complete each task. So, when they are on those tasks, wait for them to complete them by themselves, even if they take more time. You could also try allocating them a certain task while you finish the larger task. For instance, you could let them clean a window while you finish cleaning the rest of the house.

Teach them to repair damages

Nobody is perfect, and this applies to your child too. Everyone is bound to make mistakes. However, what is important is how they learn to repair the damages done. It may be an argument they got into with someone or a rule they’ve broken in the house. Have a gentle talk and listen to their side of the story instead of ordering them to do the right thing straight away. Help them realize and accept their mistake and find a solution themselves, based on the situation. This teaches them self-control too.

Maintain a routine

Repetition helps a child remember things easily. Help themcreate different routines, such as bedtime routine, study routine, play routine, or morning routine(8). Make them repeat the steps under each routine every day. Once they learn what to do and when to do it, they can eventually do these tasks without your assistance.

Be a role model

Children often learn by observing their elders. So make sure that everybody in your family is a responsible person around them. Teach good manners by being respectful towards others. Be reliable by keeping all the promises you’ve made to them so that they’ll learn to do the same. This also means that you should only make those promises that you can fulfill. Follow therules of the house和社会,尤其是在他们面前。当they see you being responsible, they will follow suit.

Maintain a no-blame policy

Sometimes, your children may not keep up with all of their tasks, or they may have a reason behind an irresponsible action. Try finding out the reason behind it rather than making them feel bad about it. Is it because they’ve forgotten about the task, or is it because they find the task daunting? Find out the reason and see what could be done to help them overcome it.

Teach them the consequences of their actions

Your child may not understand the need to be a responsible person. Explain it in a way they would understand. For instance, if they never get ready on time for school, you could explain to them that they may fall behind in class and may miss important information or that others may face inconvenience due to them.

Help them find solutions

Learning responsibilities could be a path full ofchallenges for a child. Thus, they may try to find escape routes. When your child faces difficulties, help them find solutions. For example, if they complain about too much homework, you can tell them to divide the work into smaller tasks. Stick by them and discuss the possible outcomes.

Let them pay for lost or damaged objects

If your child breaks something in the house, school, or neighborhood, or if they’ve lost something, make them pay for it with their pocket money. Alternatively, you can make them do some chores to compensate for it. The more they realize about the efforts that go into purchasing things, the less likely they will be irresponsible about objects.

Offer rewards for certain tasks

As children grow old, they may have to earn their pocket money by finding a job. After they’ve reached an appropriate age, start paying them for tasks that they wouldn’t normally do. You could pay them for tasks such as plowing the snow on the front yard or cleaning the house after a festival. This way, you would be preparing them for the responsibilities of the working world and also be teaching them perseverance.

Ask them to play a role during special occasions

当given a role during a special occasion, such as Christmas, Mother’s Day, or Father’s Day, they feel special, which makes them want to be more responsible. Put them in charge of choosing a present or guiding the guests towards the barbeque station. This responsibility may excite them and make them put their best foot forward. They will become dependable in the future.

Make them participate in extracurricular activities

It may be a sport or an art, but when your child participates in extracurricular orgroup activities, they have to get along with the others to have a good time. As every individual in a group has a role to play, they will be obliged to participate and play their role. When your child realizes that their efforts count and also determine the outcome of the group, they will try to be responsible.

Choose the right time

If your child constantly hears you speak about being responsible, they may lose interest even before performing a task. So, choose the time wisely. Try to avoid dropping tasks on them when they’re tired. Children tend to learn and understand better when they’re in a calm and playful mood(9). Use this opportunity to teach them instead.

Praise them

If your child has completed their task, do not forget to praise, or sometimes, reward them. Praise other qualities in them as well such as being caring, considerate, kind, and polite. You could get them the toy they’ve always been asking for or praise them in front of the family. Even if the task wasn’t completed perfectly the first few times, it is alright. They are still children and have years to master the task. As long as they take the initiative by themselves, offer suitable rewards or praise them for encouraging them further.

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