There comes a time in every child’s life when they need to become more independent. They will need to transition from being completely dependent on you to being responsible for themselves. This transition will take place over several years as of course, but actually the hardest stage is often from child to tween and teen as they are so used to relying on you for everything and they start going through adolescence. This is why today we are sharing a few tips around how to help your child to become more independent.
Start small
The best way to put your child onto the path of independence is to start small. This is about setting them up to be confident in themselves long before they really have to be.
Most children really need to become more independent as they go off to high school. They might have relied on you for all outings until this point and you might have accompanied them on their journey to school, but this is a game changer. Children tend to want to spend more time with their friends out and about and they need to adjust to the change in their education.
To prepare your child for this shift, give them responsibilities during their younger years. Give them age appropriate chores around the home, help to teach them about money and decision making by giving them their own pocket money and ensure that you regularly give them choices. This will help you to guide them in their decisions so that they can eventually make good decisions alone.
Build it up slowly
You do not want to go from always being with your child to sending them out across the city alone the following day, you need to build it up slowly.
You could try things like asking your child to run small errands for you where they need to pop to a nearby neighbour or store. You could encourage them to line up and pay for things themselves when you are out shopping. You could leave them at home alone for a short time when you feel they are old enough to be safe in that situation.
Talk to your child about how you would like to help them to become more independent and ask them what they would like to try doing either without your help or with you nearby to support them.
Remember that they are always learning from you
Your children are learning from you all the time. You do not need to think that you need to take the time to sit them down and teach them everything that they will ever need to know to take good care of themselves as they are picking these things up from you every single day.
You should not need to have a long tick list of everything that they need to know about to take care of their young adult selves. They will have learned about road safety whilst out with you, they will understand about sun safety as you protect them during their younger years and they will be able to make healthy choices as you will have equipped them to be able to do so.
You are spending their childhood preparing them to be independent so trust in all that you have done so far.
