It is back to school tomorrow!! The coldest term of the year, and back to the school run! Second term is easier for the older kids as you don't have to buy much aside from stationery and covering paper and some socks.
The main headache every parent has is their child losing their belongings. You could mark it, glue it to their bag, glue the hat onto their head (hahah, not really) and still some kids will manage to misplace something. The worst is when they have sports or have to change at school....there goes another sock...sigh...
I have a friend whose daughter loses an item every week, I believe she does it on purpose to annoy her mother, and it works (hahah). If it is not her hat, its her jersey or shoe or lunch box. And without fail, my friend will snap at her child, naturally because it is quite frustrating. But scolding the child is clearly not working. But would leaving the child without the item for a while be a solution?
There are different reasons why children lose belongings, I will just share 3:
1. Their age: they are still young and not used to being responsible
2. Their character: they are just clumsy or forgetful or disorganised (this is when scolding
doesn't work)
3. The parent/s: They know mommy/daddy will replace the lost item, so there is no need to stress
How many of you are guilty of #3??? I know many are. Some parents baby their children and thus the child does not learn to be responsible with their things. If I were a child and I knew I didn't have to worry about looking for anything I lost, I would definitely never stress about looking after my items. That life would be easy. I would just hand over my bag to mom who would look inside and frantically try and replace what is missing for me to have it the next day, or search for me in the school yard or classroom while I play. Easy life. Many mothers do that. I understand that some do it because they just do not have the time to look for the item, or they think their child is too young to understand responsibility. It doesn't make the situation any better. Do you think this child will be responsible with a car or money when they are older if they have never had to worry because you will fix everything?
So here are just a few points in terms of how to solve it
1. Understand your child's character and see how you can teach them not to lose items: If your child is naturally disorganised, shouting will not help. Sometimes leaving the child without for a day, could help them see the importance of the item for them at school.
2.The age of the child matters in terms of how you teach them not to lose items, but regardless of the age, they will still understand, it just depends on their character.
3. Ensure that your child understands the need for each item at school and that it is their responsibility to bring the item back daily.
4. Do not look for the lost item while your child is just waiting or playing. Make the child look for the item as well. When they see the pile of jerseys in the lost and found box when they have lost their jersey, they will remember how frustrating it was to look through the pile, and hopefully will not do it again.
5. When you pick up your child, ask them to look in their bag for each item. If they have forgotten anything, they must go back and look for the item. Kids get annoyed by such things, they will quickly learn to not lose anything.
All of our actions as adults are all related back to our childhood. No grown person wakes up irresponsible or selfish, they have been like from when they were a child and were allowed to be like that by us the parents
The mistakes of a parent walk the streets, don't let your child be one of those, be a proactive parent. Our generation has no excuse for irresponsible parenting because we have access to so much information. So let's be conscious parents
Till Next Monday
Stay Blessed
Tafi
#beingaparent
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