How to Raise an Independent, Capable, and Driven Adult

Teaching your child is just one of the many things that you need to do as a parent. Taking care of them and teaching them, however, do not have to be two independent activities. Bring your child in on chores like cleaning, laundry, and cooking, and you’ll teach them crucial life skills, responsibility, and independence. Make every fun activity a learning opportunity, and they’ll not only know more about the world and everything in it, they’ll also love the act of learning itself.

When you want to be a successful mother, whether you’re doing it with your partner or by yourself, ensure that you use these suggestions to help your child develop into a capable, independent adult:

Bonding Time that Teaches Them Life Skills

The best bonding time to do with your children is the time that you spend teaching them key life skills. Too many children nowadays head off to college or university without the key skills that will help them stay healthy and happy. It is counterintuitive to take care of all of your children’s needs as they grow up. In fact, getting your children to help with chores can help them learn responsibility, how to take care of themselves, and how to properly use equipment around the home. Don’t let your child move out of the home without knowing these basic skills:

1. Cooking

Cooking is an excellent activity to do together, and you can start cooking together from a young age. Instead of wasting time cooking for your family by yourself, make it a family activity. Not only will this teach your children how to cook and follow recipes, but it will also help them know what goes into a healthy diet.

Having your children help with the cooking can also instill a sense of pride in them, making them less fussy over the foods that they eat. They have, after all, made that food themselves! It is their food, which generally makes them more willing to try new flavors and otherwise eat foods that they previously claimed that they hated.

All you need to do is to remember to make their tasks age appropriate. Little children can help mix together dry ingredients, for example, but should not be allowed near the knives or oven. Once your child has grown up enough, you could even ask for help from time to time, for instance, if you and your partner won’t be home in time for dinner.

The end goal of this skill is to give them the ability to cook more than pasta once they go to college. Being able to cook great food will not only be how they stay healthy, but it is how they will make friends.

2. Cleaning

A clean home is a good home, which is why you need to get your children started with chores around the house early. Your youngest children, for instance, should find it second nature to put their toys away after they are done playing with them. Your older children should be able to clean their rooms, bathrooms, and kitchen periodically.

Cleaning is not just a good way to ensure that your child stays healthy, it’s also an excellent way to teach responsibility. Sharing in the duties of cleaning the house will make them more mindful of their own actions.

3. Laundry

Laundry is a chore that is not only necessary, but it should be taught. A common occurrence with first-year college students is that they incorrectly do their laundry, leading to discolored clothes, shrunken clothing, and more. Teaching your child how to sort and do the laundry properly is a crucial life skill, and it’s also another chore that can help them learn responsibility and independence.

Bonding Time that Teaches Them About the World

Every time you go out to do something fun with your kids, you could make it into a learning opportunity. Some opportunities are implicit, like learning how to camp or fish. Others are more explicit, like when you take your child to a SeaQuest Interactive Aquarium. There, your child will learn not only about the creatures of the deep, but they’ll get first-hand experience and the ability to interact with some of these creatures. Take the time when you go through the aquarium, and you’ll not only teach your children a lot of new things, you’ll learn new things for yourself. The more effort you put into learning, the more worthwhile the ticket is as well.

When you learn together, you grow together. Make learning a fun activity that you can all do, because it’s how you’ll not only teach your children now, it’s how you’ll encourage a love of learning that will stay with them throughout their lives. We should never stop learning, and if you act as an example of not someone who already knows everything, but as someone who actively wants to learn, you’ll be an excellent role model.

Encourage curiosity above being right. Encourage the pursuit of knowledge. Do this at home, and it won’t matter how well your child fits into the poorly-designed school curriculum, they will be better prepared for the real world. Because it is in the real world that knowledge and facts don’t stay stuck in stone. In business, trends and technologies change on a daily basis, and so if your child is ready and eager to learn, they will succeed. They will have the drive to constantly improve – a quality that is highly desired in employers in every field.

Spend more time together, and you’ll have the opportunity to teach your child so much more than any school will teach. Only parents can teach their children crucial life skills. Only parents can teach a love of learning. Only parents can teach on a daily basis while offering love and memories that your children will take with them forever. Put an emphasis on learning and discovery, and you will give your children the greatest gift of all – an eternal love of learning. With that trait, they can go on to do anything, because it is not the destination that they will strive for, but the journey.

Thanks to Lauren Greger