Growing Up

Ever hear the saying, "Growing up is hard to do,"??  Well I am inclined to agree with that saying.  Growing up is hard, there are so many things you need to learn to do that you have to experience to learn them.  They are things that cannot be taught in a classroom or on your parent's knee.  Responsibility is a hard concept to learn, and you have to want to understand that concept for you to truly understand it.  


Parents, teachers, grandparents, everyone really tries to teach the younger generation about responsibility.  We ask children to do homework, we ask them to clean their room or to participate in the daily chores of life, but those little things don't actually prepare them for the reality that is real life.  


Now if a child doesn't do their homework, the teacher will become frustrated and the child may lose some marks, but as long as the child gets those assignments in before report cards are due, they will receive credit for the assignment.  School definitely does not prepare students for high school, college or the work force.  If in college you don't turn in a paper, you don't get marked for that paper and you FAIL the class.  If you don't do a project for your boss, you could get fired.  Deadlines are created for a reason, they are created because people's time is valuable and we should not be running all over God's green earth to get something done on time.  I should not have to ask my child if he has homework everyday, he should be learning do manage his life in school.  Unfortunately, the pendulum for what school is about has swung so far into the academic side of things, life lessons are left to the parents.  I do not mind teaching my child responsibility, I do not mind helping him learn to be organized and how to manage his time, but there is no help on the other end well then the whole system falls apart.  Hilary Clinton was right, it takes a village to raise a child, so why is society acting like each faction is a separate island that has nothing to do with the other islands in the child's life??


By giving my child certain chores to accomplish each week I am hoping to teach him responsibility and pride in his belongings and possessions. If he does not do an adequate job, I will make him do it over while I show him how I want it done.  If my child's room isn't clean I don't go and clean it for him, but I 'nag' him until he gets it done.  It's never up to my standard, but I have to pick and choose my battles. The reason I let the room issue go is because I feel that his room is his area and he needs to keep it the way he wants so he feels like he has something that is his own.  


I know that even know there are times when I find doing the 'grown up thing' is difficult.  It would be so much easier to just lie in bed all day and not worry about paying bills, going to work, or interacting with people.  However, the world does not want to pay me money to sit at home indefinitely doing nothing.  And when I say nothing obviously that's not really the case as I am taking care of an infant and working on teaching him how to become a grown up.  


Now this is definitely something I am going to think about, how I can best prepare my children for the 'real world'.  So here is a question for you readers, what activities of being a grown up do you wish you had been taught or exposed to before you left your parents house?? What grown up situations would have been useful for you to make your transition into adulthood easier??

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  1. I am testing to see if I can leave a comment now, not sure what happened before but hopefully this will work.... I miss reading the comments from my readers!!!

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