MOMENTS FOR MOMS
Help Your Child Make Age-Appropriate
Choices
By Kimberly Snider
Missionary to the Philippines
CBN.com
- "Train a child in the way he should go, and when
he is old he will not turn from it" (Proverbs 22:6).
Wisdom comes by making mistakes and learning from them. If we
want to teach our children to make wise choices, we must let them
practice choosing. We also need to let them suffer the consequences
of their choices, whether those consequences are good or bad.
The choices we need to give our kids should be age-appropriate.
It is appropriate for a 2-year-old to choose what picture book
he wants you to read to him before he goes to bed. It is not appropriate
for him to decide when his bedtime should be. He cannot tell the
amount of time he needs to sleep in order to be healthy. That
is your job.
When giving choices to our children, we need to start with simple
ones and work up to complex choices. We need to demonstrate to
them that, as they choose wisely, we will give them opportunities
for more complex choices.
A child must not dictate the decisions that rightly belong to
the parents. A child can't know what school is best when he or
she is still in elementary school. However, by the time college-age
is reached, the child should have major input in the decision
where to attend.
As our children grow older, we need to have less voice in their
decisions. We need to encourage them to make their own choices
and live with the consequences. We shouldn't always rescue them
from the consequences of bad choices. If we do, it is crippling:
they will not learn to be wise or responsible.
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From
"Moments for Moms," a free email subscription. Copyright
(c) 2005 Women's
Ministries of the Assemblies of God. Reprinted with
permission.
"Moments For Moms" is written by Kimberly Snider,
a missionary to the Philippines and host of the radio program
"Moments for Mothers." The radio program is produced by
Asia Pacific Media Ministries. The online edition, "Moments
for Moms," is produced and distributed by Media Ministries
of the Assemblies of God, Springfield, Missouri. |
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