Page 1 of 1

Independence

Posted: Sun May 06, 2018 10:56 am
by motherhood
How do you encourage your children to be more independent? What activities at home can we do to encourage this movement? Sometimes, the feeling of being drained into their dependence can be little overwhelming.

Re: Independence

Posted: Sun May 22, 2022 2:05 pm
by Alan2022
I suggest independence is not just an issue with children but with adults of all ages.
You need to determine if your understanding of independence is in reality a dependence issue.
For example to be an independent thinker in a classroom, the teacher must have lessons designed to transition from full instruction to full guidance to full independence.
As students gain confidence through experience (both failure and success) of lessons with gradual increase in choice of actions and the responsibility of consequences you construct opportunities to eventually be an independent thinker.
In a family situation you provide similar sets of tasks at home that require different degrees of freedom of action. Over time the child develops independence through each opportunity. Remember to allow failure and respond with constructive feedback and to acknowledge success and reflect on how that success was achieved.
Unfortunately out of love, many parents take less than optimal actions and make decisions that result in the child increasing their dependence of the parents.
The consistency of parents in terms of their responses to specific actions from the child creates the framework on how the child determines their decisions in different scenarios.