Tips for making Your Child more Independent

Most often, parents tend to overprotect their children without having any idea what negative aftereffects it might cause in remote future. We all love our kids and wish to provide them a protective umbrella but that should not be a hindrance to his growth as a individual.
Every child needs to understand what it responsibility and he or she will fail to understand it without being independent and only parents can guide them to be so!

How do I get my child to be more independent?

As a parent, it is one of your biggest responsibilities to raise your little one to become self reliant and independent by nature. When your child was an infant, he or she was completely dependent on you for every little requirement of life, but with time you must try to separate yourself from your child so that he or she acknowledges and accepts to be self sufficient.
Allowing them to take their own small decisions like which dress to wear, what to eat, how to manage time between studies and play, how to choose friends and share time with family, how to value money etc can make them one step ahead to be independent as far as thoughts and actions are concerned.

Take notice

Ensure you notice all independent activities of your ward while you have decided to let loose. He or she should not overdo anything but should learn to take small decisions and must accept their consequences –positive or negative. Your job is to let him perform the task, observe the methods and actions and help only there is a need. Monitoring is an essential job here for obvious reasons.

Identify opportunities

Who knows your child more than you? So enlist few chores which he or she can now do independently like brushing teeth, put on dresses/socks/shoes, eat own food, etc and tell your child to perform them without your help anymore. In this way you will be able to understand the level of independence your child has attained, and where you need to incorporate yourself.

Negotiate compromise

This can work like a wonder to begin with! Ask your child to do a part of the job you want him to do and do the other half by yourself. For example you can ask your child to wear the shirt by herself on condition that you would do the shoes, or vice versa. You can also promise her some gift if she happens to brush her teeth by her own or finish her homework without your help and so on. These little compromises would be fun activities for her and also simultaneously make her understand that she has grown up and needs to complete her works by her own.