when some person in your child’s life does not live up to your expectations. Not every person in your child’s life will have his best interest at heart and you need to be aware of these situations and listen to your child’s concerns. However, that is a far cry from giving your child the idea that nothing is his fault or his responsibility.

Accepting responsibility is an active state. It is not enough to know right from wrong. It is also important to act on it. When you are responsible you do your part, you reach out to others, you admit your mistakes and learn from them, you are truthful and try to be a good citizen. Your child will make mistakes because no one is perfect. The way children grow and mature is to learn from their mistakes. If you try to fix everything not only do you rob your child of an opportunity to grow but you miss an important time in his life to teach him about good character and your family values. When your child makes a mistake stand by him and support him as he corrects the situation with your input. For example, when your child lies you have an opportunity to talk about how important it is to earn someone’s trust and help your child make amends to the person who was hurt or disappointed.

Mold a responsible child by giving her responsibility at home. A pre school child can pick up her toys, a kindergarten child can put his clothes away and a first grader can make her own bed. You might ask your child which of several pre selected appropriate options she would like as a daily chore. Then show her the correct way to approach this new task. Don’t expect perfection but monitor her efforts. Children thrive on recognition and crave attention. If you create an atmosphere of respect by never criticizing too much and always commenting on positive results, your child will aim to please. Encourage your child to do the right thing by remaining positive. As a parent you must be firm, fair and consistent.

Set up a system of organization at home to help your child. After homework is done place it in a folder and put it in the school bag with everything she will need for school the next day. The next step is to ask your child to prepare the school bag and the third step is simply to monitor her actions. A kindergarten child may need to be reminded to bring his work home or her snack to school for the first few weeks of school but after that you are doing a disservice to your child by continuing to run to school to bring what she forgot or expect the teacher to check to see that all of the work is brought home. By the time your child is in second or third grade you should not need to remind her to do either of these things; it is her responsibility to remember and to be organized. I have known parents of seniors in high school who run to school almost every day…