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Tag responsibility
How to Help Kids Follow Family Rules
When it comes to family rules, a common mistake parents make is not clearly defining the rules! What is acceptable and what is not in a family can be a moving target depending on the whims of a parent’s mood,…
Kids and Hygiene: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
“Honey, let’s go, we’re going to be late!” You sigh in relief as you hear the pitter-patter of little feet running to the front door — only to grimace again as you see that your child’s hair hasn’t seen a…
Beat Boredom with These Four Tips
Research has shown that being bored is not such a bad thing for kids. Boredom can foster creativity and patience. Yet, when a parent hears that tired phrase again and again, we may feel the need to “fix” the…
What If We’re Doing It All Backwards?
Jeni wants her ten-year-old, Timmy, to be more obedient and responsible. What parent doesn’t want this? So when Timmy disobeys, and doesn’t take responsibility to clean up the kitchen as assigned on his chore chart, she enters the all too common battle of wills to get him to do his job.
One of Our Biggest Parenting Mistakes…
One of our biggest parenting mistakes is to try to get kids to behave right for the wrong reasons. It’s a good thing to want our kids to behave responsibly and to internalize the value of responsibility, but parents tend…
Do Warnings Teach Kids to Be Less Responsible?
When dealing with a misbehaving child, many parents follow this pattern: instruction, warning, warning, last warning, really strong last warning, angry explosion!! When we stretch out our instructions into multiple warnings and don’t follow through, it teaches our children to…
Building the Family Team: A Solution to Chore Wars
7-year-old Bryce was a master “chore evader.” When asked to help with chores, this distractable drama king would slump over and whine, “But I wanted to play!” His parents, Sandy and Jeff, had run out of ideas and came to…
Your Child Is Not Your Report Card
As the school year begins, here are a few brief reminders about responsibility and report cards.
When Kids Bug Us for Money
Early Job Training Produces More Than Money. Former CF staff member Brian Houts shared this story with us of teaching responsibility through mowing lawns. It’s ugly. It’s a gray lawnmower with a 5 horsepower Tecumseh engine and a 20 inch…
Helping Kids Learn Independence from Tots to Teens
Our teen-aged son had been working on a variety of “extra-credit” home projects for us as a way to earn money. (For younger parents, don’t miss Tips for Tots application below.) I definitely noticed some strengths and weaknesses in…