How to teach kids to take care of themselves

It is a prime duty of the parents to help their child to help themselves. It is very important for a child to learn to take care of themselves as it is not possible for parent s to be with their children all the time. Hence help your children learn how to take care of themselves so as to be confident and responsible kids. This article helps parents to understand how they should teach and help children to take care of themselves.

How to teach kids to take care of themselves

When kids are small, parents have nothing to worry about as they are always there to take care of their kids. But once they start going out to pre-school or schools or any other activity classes then the problem really arises. This is when parents especially mothers keep worrying how the kids are going to handle themselves outside, how will they take care of themselves. The worry isn't just limited to children taking care of themselves in terms of hygiene and other cleanliness issues like washing hands before eating or going to the toilet whenever they need to go. But the worry for parents also exceeds the fact that how their child will handle strangers and unknowing people who may come along the way. With the world full of strangers and lots of strange and scary events happening around worries keep increasing for everyone. It is not that easy for any parent to handle this issue and they give them shivers when they think of their child's first day out. It is thus each and every parent's issue about how to teach their child to take care of themselves. The solution is just the same for each of these parents.

Parents need to teach their child to start taking care of themselves. Just let the children take care of everything right since their childhood, right in front of their parents. Let the parents watch them and check whether everything is going on well. Not a single parent on this planet wishes that anything should go wrong with their kid. So this is completely in the parent's hand to see that their children should be self-sufficient enough to take care of them. This is all in the hands of parents. But not all parents realize that as few of them still believe in pampering kids in a way to such an extent thus to spoil their child enough. This way if the parent thinks that he is trying to provide the kid with all the worldly pleasures than he is certainly wrong. By spoiling kids, the parents are actually making them handicapped and the one who would be the ultimate sufferer is the child.

Why do kids need to learn to take care of themselves

Kids need to learn to take care of themselves, in order to make them self sufficient enough to take care of themselves even without their parents around them.

- Learning to take care of themselves make kids confident,

- Learning to take care of themselves make kid responsible even at an early age.

- Parents can be less worried about their kid's day out without them.

- Learning to take care of things like maintaining hygiene and cleanliness teach kids to be aware of personal cleanliness and thus keep diseases at bay.

- Learning to take care of things like being alert with their surroundings make kid smart and such kids can easily tackle grave situations by avoiding them from happening.

Start teaching kids to take care of themselves from an early age

Learning things like washing hands before eating, going to the toilet and washing hands afterwards, finishing food from the plate, etc can be taught to kids from an early age, right from they being toddlers. If such things are being told to kids every now and then they tend to remember and also implement in their later stage. Few things that parents can teach toddlers to do on their own is:

- use of spoon while eating.

- washing hands before and after eating

- washing hands before and after going to the toilet.

- Use of fork.

- How to pour wet foods

- How to close a container say a lunch box after eating.

- Wiping hands with a napkin after wash.

Kids in the age group 7 to 8 years can be taught little more complicated things like the use of a knife (dull knife), being alert, making beds, not to take gifts or sweets from strangers etc.

Teaching kids to take care of their hygiene

Once kids are been taught about small things that they could take care of as mentioned above, parents can start with small hygiene lessons further. These lessons include such learning lessons which relate to personal hygiene which once learned a child can very well take care of himself even when he is out camping or staying at a friend's or relative's place. Few of these lessons include:

- Getting dressed on their own.

- Brushing their teeth twice every day.

- Blowing their noses and wiping them with a clean towel.

- Covering their nose and mouth while sneezing.

- Brushing hair by themselves with a clean comb.

- Taking bath

Teaching kids to take care of their belongings

At home, kids are known to scatter their things including toys, books, clothes and other things everywhere, and we as parents don't really mind that as we keep placing these things in their right place. But have we ever thought that this behaviour of children may not be appropriate when they go to someone else's house or even in their pre-school or school? Such behaviour would make the child embarrassed and not only the child but also the parents. Forget the embarrassment but children may also due to this carelessness forget or even lose their things in school. So parents need to teach children to take care of their belongings, or just be ready to buy a lunch box or water bottle or even a book every now and then. It is very important that children learn to take care of their things and for this learning starts at home. For this parents should follow simple rules:

- Teach your child to keep their things properly in place whenever they are done with it.

- Plan a designated area for pencils, water bottle, books, stationery and toys. Ask your child to place things in the designated area as soon as they are done with them.

- As soon as your child returns from school ask him to keep his school bag on the proper place.

- Ask your child to keep his toys and books in their designated place as soon as they finish playing or studying.

- Ask your child to arrange his school bag too by keeping books and other stationery along with lunch box in their proper place.

- Remind your child to take care of his belongings in school and ask him to bring everything back after school.

Teaching kids to take care of themselves from strangers

This happens to be an important lesson which parents need to give children for their own safety. Nowadays kids are mostly aware of all the things that are happening around them and they are usually alert. But still parents can't afford to take any chances when it comes to child safety. For this it is very important to teach kids how they should be alert outside their house, everywhere including park, school, cafeteria or even in markets whenever they are alone. Teach you kids how to deal with strangers and what they can do to protect themselves when in such situations. Here's what parents can teach their child:

- Try to teach them to be alert all the time.

- Teach your child about not accepting any gifts or sweets from strangers.

- Teach your child about not talking to strangers.

- Remind your child about being alert in familiar as well as unfamiliar places.

- Speak to your child about concept of strangers and the consequences attached to it. Each and every kid should know about the danger associated to it.

How to teach kids to take care of themselves