Blog: Helping Kids Become Organized
The ABC's of Organizing Kids: X is for Have High EXpections for Children

I think most of us eXpect great things from our children but I thought it was worth discussing.  Let me first say, that I realize that there are special cases where our expectations need to be tailored a bit to deal with unique situations. 

Our children very much want to meet our expectations and if we set our expectations high or low they will try to achieve what we expect.  By our setting the bar high at a very early age, I believe we can really help them achieve more.  Every child is different, so meeting expectations will be different for each child.  I don't mean that every child should be expected to do the same in all areas nor that our expectations are always achievable, but that they know what is expected of them in the areas that they can excel in.  We can determine pretty early in a child's life, where our children's strengths and weakness lie.  Some of them are really good at math, really good at sports, really good in the area of the arts, or whatever it might be, but they all have an area that they can excel in and our pushing them to continue to strive for excellence in all the places they can will make them a stronger individual.

I have heard parents who have not been really successful themselves in areas, proceed to not expect much of their own children.  Kids surprise us all the time with what they can do.  My four children all excel in different areas that I would not necessarily consider myself any kind of expert in.  The biggest thing is that they understand that you do expect that they will give it their all and that they will strive to be the best they can.  Why is this so important, some might ask?  It is because our children build their self esteem on those things that they can do well and have confidence in.  I have always said that besides love and faith the best thing you can give your child is self esteem.  It is self confidence that allows children to go out in the world, be leaders and stand up for what they believe in versus always following in the foot steps of others. 

I know we cannot all lead all things; I am just talking about having something that is unique to each child that is their "feather in their cap" so to speak.  They might be a great swimmer, love math, draw really well, or be a great singer or dancer.  Whatever their strengths are, these will allow them stability as they encounter challenges, temptations and road blocks in their life.  Now what does this have to do with organizing?  Well, when your children are involved in many things they will have to be more organized than others who aren't to enable them to fit all that they need to in their schedule.  From discussions with teachers, reading books and my own personal experience I have found that the more children have to manage in activities the more disciplined they become to keep themselves on track.  There will always be exceptions but I think you would agree that when you have more to do, you have to be more organized versus periods of time when things are less structured.  Helping our children to manage their time so that they can accomplish the things that are important to them and excel in areas that they can is the best thing we can give our children.  While I am not advocating that we work our kids to death, I do know that having a good work ethic as an adult comes from having a good work ethic as a young person.  We are only doing our children a service by having high expectations versus leaving them to stumble through life not understanding that the world out there is competitive and expecting them to not just say what they will do but do what they say.

posted on: 3/17/2008 9:00:00 AM by Rosanne Larkins
category: Family

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Helping Kids Become Organized

by Rosanne Larkins

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About Rosanne:

Rosanne Larkins, Defining Time & Space Professional Organizing, Helping people put peace into their life through simplifying things around them. Reduce stress through creating order, save money knowing what you have, save time knowing where to find things.