I was just reading an article on about.com on when is a good time to leave your child home alone. That is a difficult question...at least for me it is. I was raised in a small town in a different time. I was a latch key kid from the time I was 7. I would go home from school and color or play until my mom got home. Now I have kids of my own. I live in the city, not a small town and I'm terrified to leave my kids home alone.
It seems that for a lot of parents the magic number is 12. Some parents start leaving their kids for short periods of time before 12 to get them used to being home alone and following the rules and then when they are 12, if they show some responsibility for themselves, they can stay home. Some kids start babysitting when they are 12. If they haven't been staying home, how are they responsible enough to babysit other kids?
I can't even trust my kids to behave when I'm in the shower, how can I trust them to behave when I'm not in the house? Maybe that would help them to start showing some maturity, if I left them home to fend for themselves for little bits at a time.
Which leads me to a conversation I had with my daughter and my mom the other night. I have been way to lax with my kids and not expecting too much from them in the way of chores. I have been doing the catch up and I've noticed lately, my kids are becoming more and more lazy. Well, I've decided it's time to quit compensating for their laziness and making them step up. I started cooking when I was about 8 years old. My mom could trust me to start dinner, like putting water on to boil for spaghetti or whatever and she would finish it when she got home. My kids made cookies this week and I had to stand over them and supervise everything they did. That's when it hit me they really need to be stepping up and I need to be letting them. I find that it's easier if I just do it, but not only am I doing a disservice to me by carrying all of the load, I am doing a disservice to them. They aren't learning how to be productive humans and they are lazy. I don't want lazy kids...I want hardworking responsible kids. So, from now on, I will be cracking the whip at my house!
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I enjoyed your post. :)
ReplyDeletewell said, I honestly need to let my child do more and not be so worried if its done "right" or "my way" because that doesnt matter. What matters is that she is interested in learning and needs it to become a mature, hardworking kid/adult. I loved this post. It got me thinking :)
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