How many times I heard mothers say:
‘I wish I have more time for myself!’
‘Now that I am a mom, I don’t have some me time ever!’
Well, if you still have babies, then I am not going to lie to you: you may need to wait a bit longer to get some time for yourself. But when your children are not babies anymore, you can start teaching them to be more independent. And you will start to breathe again!
The Basics
Getting more independent is gratifying for your child too. You will see how proud he will be when he is able to tie his shoes by himself.
When should you start teaching and what tasks can be done independently by age? Those are good questions, and this really depends on your child maturity. My daughter was dressing every morning independently as soon as she was 2, but my son wasn’t ready before he was 4! So your first homework is to identify a few tasks you think your child can do by himself and have you child pick one to start with. One at a time is enough. Give your child some time to do it. My daughter used to take 10 minutes to tie her shoes, so I had to be patient and indulgent and start our morning routine 10 minutes earlier than usual. Your child may not do as well as you do and not as fast as you do, but he will do it on his own! And always focus on his progress and praise him.
The Next Step
Once your child can perform one task by himself, the next step is to perform a series of tasks independently. That’s when I experimented the chart My Daily Routine.
- Define with your child the tasks you expect him to perform in the morning, after school and before going to bed
- Agree on 3 gradual rewards based on the total at the end of the week
- Let your child put a checkmark on his tasks every day if he performed it independently!
It really saved me a lot of headaches and screams in the morning to get to school on time!
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Did you work for you?
If you tried this chart, did you work for you?
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