• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to header navigation
  • Skip to footer navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Display Search Bar
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Facebook Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Twitter Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Pinterest Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Instagram Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on YouTube Follow 5 Minutes For Mom via RSS

5 Minutes for Mom

Main navigation

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Course
      • Breakfast and Brunch
      • Snack
      • Lunch
      • Appetizer
      • Dinner
      • Dessert
    • Ingredient
      • Apple
      • Beef
      • Blueberry
      • Chicken
      • Chocolate
      • Cranberry
      • Peach
      • Pumpkin
      • Squash
      • Strawberry
      • Tomato
      • Vegetables
      • Zucchini
    • Method
      • Air Fryer
      • Baking
      • Grilling
      • Instant Pot
      • No Bake
      • One Dish
      • Slow Cooker
    • Type
      • Breads and Rolls
      • Cakes and Muffins
      • Condiments
      • Cookies and Bars
      • Drinks
      • Food for Kids
      • Gluten-Free
      • Main Dish
      • Pies and Crisps
      • Salads
      • Sandwiches and Wraps
      • Side Dishes
      • Smoothies
      • Soup
  • Crafts & DIY
    • Crafts
    • DIY
    • Kids Crafts
    • Printables
    • Scrapbooking
    • Sewing
  • Family Life
    • Giveaways
    • Lifestyle
    • Marriage
    • Motherhood
    • Parenting
    • Pet Care
    • Special Needs
    • Time Management
    • Travel
  • Holidays
    • New Year’s
    • Valentine’s Day
    • St. Patrick’s Day
    • Easter
    • Mother’s Day
    • Fourth of July
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas

How to Teach Your Kids Self-Reliance

March 5, 2017 by Susan

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

ShareTweetPinPocketMail

One of the toughest parenting challenges is how to teach your kids self-reliance. For some parents, this challenge is harder than for others. I’ll admit, this is one of my areas of weakness. Personally I tend to do too much for my kids because it’s often quicker and easier to do the job myself. But I know when I’m making these mistakes. So today I want to help you learn from my mistakes and from other wiser parenting bloggers.

How to Teach Your Kids Self-Reliance

When we first published this post, Jennifer Donovan had reviewed a wonderful web-based organization tool for parents called the M.O.M. Method, but unfortunately the MOM Method website is no longer active. So I wanted to rewrite this post because it’s such an important topic for parents.

Jennifer had shared that she too struggled with often taking the “easy way out” when parenting her young kids. Just like me, she found it to be so tiresome to nag about her children about putting their clothes away. Sometimes it was just easier to do it herself.

Do you ever feel that way?

There are a few main reasons why I weaken and just do tasks myself instead of successfully teaching my kids self-reliance.

Learn from 3 of my major weaknesses…

  1. I’m too busy. As a single, work at home mom, I truly am too busy. But this is one of those catch-22 problems. If I would invest some more time in teaching my kids to do certain jobs themselves, I’d have more time.
     
    I think certain personality types have a harder time with this than others. I’m a procrastinator. I tend to put things off. So this challenge is harder for me.
     
    If you’re the type to get right to work on a task, you may be better at investing the time up front to save yourself time later on.
     
  2. I’m not strict enough. As a parent, it helps if you have a certain amount of “strictness”. I do NOT have any. I’m such a push-over. My kids really do know how to push my buttons and get away with stuff.
     
    I envy my friends who have a natural demeanour that shows they’re not messing around.
     
    But the earlier you can show your kids that say what you mean, the better off you’ll be.
     
  3. I’m repeating my own mom’s mistakes. I love my mother so much and I never want to blame her for my mistakes. But the honest truth is that she also did too much for me and I didn’t grow up being a very self-reliant kid.
     
    These habits can be hard to break. If you grew up learning self-reliance early, then you’re lucky.
     
    If you’re like me and relied too much on your parents, you need try hard to break the cycle.

One of my favorite parts of being a blogger and spending so much time online is learning from parents that are wiser than myself.

Here are a few of the parenting bloggers that inspire and teach me…

  1. Zina from Let’s Lasso The Moon – Zina has two girls almost the same ages as mine. She blogs about many topics – not just parenting – and I find that she’s clearly such a fabulous mother that I’m continually learning from her.
     
  2. Natasha Daniels from Anxious Toddlers. Anxious Toddlers is about more than parenting anxious toddlers. It offers support and guidance for parenting kids through all ages and stages of life. Natasha is a child therapist and child anxiety expert… and she is just brilliant!
     
  3. MaryAnne from Mama Smiles. MaryAnne blogs about family life with an emphasis on mindful parenting and educational and creative family activities. I love her blog.

There are an endless list of inspiring parenting bloggers and I hate just listing a few because there are so many who I’ve learned from. For more, please check out our Parenting Pinterest Board.

And Don’t Miss This…

One of our writers shared some really wonderful tips here in this post Ways to Show Your Love Daily.

5 Ways to Show Your Love Daily

Pin it for Later

How to Teach Your Kids Self-Reliance

 

How to Teach Your Kids Self-Reliance

 

Written by Susan Carraretto, co-founder of 5 Minutes for Mom
Talk with me: @5minutesformom and Facebook.com/5minutesformom
Pin with me at pinterest.com/5minutesformom

ShareTweetPinPocketMail
Around the Blogosphere – Add YOUR Giveaway Link #Giveaways
How To Pull Yourself Out Of A Reading Slump

About Susan

Susan Carraretto and her identical twin, Janice Croze, created 5 Minutes for Mom in 2006. Susan loves all social media, but her top addiction these days is Pinterest.

Reader Interactions


Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

3 Comments

  1. Anna says

    March 6, 2017 at 11:47 am

    I hear ya! I have struggled with this and am finally making some headway in helping my kiddos to be more self-reliant.

    Reply
  2. Natasha Daniels says

    March 5, 2017 at 10:35 am

    Hi Susan,
    I just happened to come across this article this morning and was wonderfully surprised to see my site listed as an inspiration to you! That warmed my heart. Thanks for the kind words 💕

    Reply
    • Susan says

      March 5, 2017 at 8:22 pm

      Hey Natasha, you truly are an inspiration to me.

      I’ve been pinning and reading lots of your content these days. I struggle with terrible anxiety and my two girls both have anxiety challenges as well, so your videos and posts about helping kids with anxiety are so helpful.

      Reply

Primary Sidebar

Bringing Moms Together

We are Janice and Susan, twin bloggers and work-at-home moms. We're here to inspire, encourage & empower you.

Meet Us…

Work With Us…

Subscribe via Email

to be first to read new posts

Trending Now

Raspberry Coulis – How To Make Raspberry Sauce

Raspberry Coulis – How To Make Raspberry Sauce

Among Us Costumes – How To Make Pretty DIY Among Us Cosplay Outfits

Among Us Costumes – How To Make Pretty DIY Among Us Cosplay Outfits

Oven Roasted Potatoes and Peppers Recipe

Oven Roasted Potatoes and Peppers Recipe

Instant Pot Apple Crisp that is Ready in Minutes!

Instant Pot Apple Crisp that is Ready in Minutes!

browse around

  • Posts by Susan
  • Posts by Janice
  • Favorite Recipes
  • Favorite Crafts
  • Giveaways
  • All Posts

Footer

Recipes

Traditional Irish Soda Bread Recipe and History

Traditional Irish Soda Bread Recipe and History

25 Awesome Rainbow and Green St. Patrick’s Day Treats

25 Awesome Rainbow and Green St. Patrick’s Day Treats

Easy Valentine Sugar Cookies

Easy Valentine Sugar Cookies

Crafts/DIY

Easter Egg Painting – How to Paint Easter Eggs with Acrylic Paint

Easter Egg Painting – How to Paint Easter Eggs with Acrylic Paint

DIY Flower Press – How To Press Flowers

DIY Flower Press – How To Press Flowers

Valentine’s Day Crafts For Kids – Super Cute and Easy Valentine Craft Ideas

Valentine’s Day Crafts For Kids – Super Cute and Easy Valentine Craft Ideas

Giveaways

Valentine’s Day Gifts For Mom

Valentine’s Day Gifts For Mom

School Supplies List and Back to School Shopping Guide

School Supplies List and Back to School Shopping Guide

REDEEMING LOVE Set to Strike Gold on the Big Screen #RedeemingLoveMovie

REDEEMING LOVE Set to Strike Gold on the Big Screen #RedeemingLoveMovie

Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Facebook Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Twitter Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Pinterest Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on Instagram Follow 5 Minutes For Mom on YouTube Follow 5 Minutes For Mom via RSS
  • About
  • Contact
  • Work with Us
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2023 5 Minutes for MomTheme by Melissa Rose Design and Once Coupled