Video : Responsibility

Carol talks about responsibility and how the word literally means the ‘ability’ to ‘respond’, and that by encouraging children by giving them plenty of choices and consequences, they can easily learn to become responsible.

“I like to break the word into two, to remind myself that responsibility really is about our ability to respond.  As parents, we’d like our children to have the ability to respond in any situation.  Of course, kids can choose to respond with “bad” behaviour, just as we can, or with acceptable behaviour, which is what we hope for.  We, too, have this same response-ability”.  Making good choices takes a lot of practise, maturing and self-discipline, which we need to help them develop. It takes time and practise, which happens naturally if we constantly offer choices and help them see the consequences during the course of each day. Choice and responsibility always go hand in hand. By experiencing the consequences, your children get to behave from their own inner experience rather than from fear of punishment.