One of a parent’s jobs is to raise their children to be successful adults. Today, we have a few suggestions to help parents make that goal a reality.
Writer Amy Carney asks a question all parents should consider…. “How do we raise competent adults if we’re always doing everything for them?”
She answers the question with several things parents should stop doing for their teenagers to help them grow up.
First, Waking them up in the morning. She writes…. “If you are still waking little Johnny up in the mornings, it’s time to let an alarm clock do its job.
She adds, a parents “goal is to raise well functioning adults.”
Next, Making their breakfast and packing their lunch. Carney says a parent’s job is to make sure there is food in the house so that they can eat breakfast and pack a lunch. It will only be a few short years before that teenager is making his or her own decisions on what to eat when they’re away at college.
Another task to give up…. Filling out their paperwork. She writes, “Hold your teens accountable. They will need to fill out job and college applications soon and they need to know how to do that without your intervention.
Fourth, Delivering their forgotten items. Parents don’t miss opportunities to provide natural consequences for your teens. Forget something? Feel the pain of that. Kids also get to see, that you can make it through the day without a mistake consuming you.
And finally doing all of their laundry. Carney says every once in awhile a child needs a healthy reminder that mom and dad do not work for them. The minute they assume that’s a parent’s main role in life, is the minute that you should gladly hand over the laundry task to them.