Читать книгу Raising Able - Susan Tordella - Страница 31

There is an alternative. Children can be re-introduced to the age-old idea of contributing to the family welfare, without pay, on a regular basis. If you employ the tactics suggested in this book, it may cause children, tweens and teens to cry out in protest, “I am not your servant!”

Indeed, they are not our servant, and we are not their servant. We are a family, a team that can work together using simple practices of family meetings and dinners, encouragement, and natural and logical consequences to develop responsible children who will leave home, and be self-supporting through gainful employment.

Doing chores develops responsibility in children at school and eventually in the workplace. It teaches a multitude of skills and builds genuine self-esteem -- not the self-excess-teem children have drowned in during the past few decades. Children can be told “no,” that what they did is not up to par and they need to try again. They need reasonable boundaries and guidance from parents, the family’s benevolent team leaders.

Many people who contributed stories to this book grew up on farms where they were counted on to contribute to the family’s welfare from as young as age 2. The experience of being a valued team member with responsibility left a lifelong impression on them. Many of them are successful entrepreneurs and company leaders.

Your children do not have rise at dawn to milk cows in a cold barn or spend the summer picking vegetables to feel like people depend on them. A few simple jobs a week will establish a similar foundation, without the farm.