Many children tend to cling to their parents for taking all the decisions for them. But eventually every child has to learn to take their decisions independently. Your aim should be to make your child independent and inculcate a self-determining attitude.
Follow some simple steps that will help to make your child independent:
- Do not spoon-feed. Encourage your child to do things like homework or other activities independently. This will decrease his/her dependence on you, and encourage them to finish their work independently. Your child should know basics such as his/her full name, address, and phone number.
- Boost your child’s confidence levels. If your child is not confident then he or she will rely on you for the smallest of things. Teach them how to do thing independently like make a telephone call, get things like bread and butter from a store nearby.
- Avoid being overprotective. Let your child deal with problems with peers and friends in classroom and playground on his or her own – do not interfere or solve it for them. Over-protection hinders your child’s decision-making ability.
- Let them make their own decisions like what dress they want to wear, what game he or she would like to play. As the child grows he or she can be granted enough freedom to choose among the available alternatives and you can guide/help if needed.
- Make them feel secure and comfortable with you and at home. They should have the confidence that they can rely on you in times of difficulty. This increases their self-confidence and decision making ability.
