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Valuable Lessons
Teaching Toddlers About Responsibility By Mark Stackpole
For the most part, we believe that people should do the right thing and then take responsibility on the occasions when they do not. Of course, there is often a gap between what we believe and what we do. Raising children to be responsible in thought, word and deed can bedaunting both in theory and in practice. While many bemoan the death of helpfulness, respect, politeness and personal responsibility in today's culture, perhaps those deaths have been (at least slightly) exaggerated.
Teaching young children about the importance of these issues certainly remains a priority of today's parent. How, then, can we get better at it, thus helping our children to better themselves in the process?
Even though toddlers are very self-absorbed at this stage in their development, adults can give them opportunities to stretch their boundaries by asking them for help. Roehlkepartain suggests parents ask their toddlers to place napkins on the table for dinner, tear up lettuce for a salad or get a diaper for a younger sibling. 
"To an adult, these may not seem all that helpful, but to a toddler, these meaningful actions help lay a foundation for them to become more responsible as they grow," she says.
Roehlkepartain believes parents need to be more consistent in their modeling of effective behaviors, allowing children to understand expectations and how to fulfill them. "With our busy lives and the many demands placed on families today, it can be difficult," she says. "Toddlers learn by helping out in small ways throughout the day, every day. If a family has a clean-up time scheduled as a part of their daily routine, then young children will quickly learn that cleaning up is an expected daily activity."
