Organize Your Children for Current and Future Success
As a parent, teaching children the skill of organization is not just one less cleaning job on the household chore checklist. Some experts consider teaching children organizational skills as fundamental as instructing them about morals, values and other personal signposts. In fact, organization skills taught during childhood are likely to follow the child through adolescence and into adulthood. And when children reach adult age, these essential skills can translate into real-world talents and successes.
So is it possible for parents to teach children to become organized? Take it from a Professional Organizer – most definitely! I regularly experience the benefits of teaching my children organizational skills – my nine-year-old now asks to put away and organize our family’s groceries by herself, and she does a great job doing so.
While many children will not initially find the activity of organizing their personal items desirable, they will welcome the consistent routine that organizing offers. Because children generally respond well to consistency and structure, and parents love an organized home, the arrangement would seem like a no-brainer – teach your children organizational skills and parents enjoy a less-cluttered household in the process.
However, many parents make the mistake of simply saying “clean your room” which essentially leaves organizational methods up to their children and allows them the opportunity to make creative organizational choices. Without the necessary instruction, a child can just throw their toys anywhere they please as long as the clutter is out of sight. Creativity is fine, but what will happen when the child arrives in the real world as an adult? Will his kooky childhood methods serve him well amongst his peers?
As a child’s first teacher and the guardian of their future, it is up to the parent to take every opportunity to prepare their children for their adult lives. It is well worth the effort for parents to communicate basic rules of organization that will build a child’s skills. Rules provide structure in children’s lives and structure lays the foundation for the types of people children will grow up to be.
So why waste an opportunity to guide the development of your child? In essence, if you teach a child how to be well-organized, he will grow to be a well-organized adult. To aid you in your efforts, 
I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about the family chore system and household organizer – Mom, Can I Help Around the House?, that I designed for my own family. Then two years ago I began sharing it with friends and organizing clients. It transformed our family and taught my children critical organizing skills, that they continue to build on each day.
Consider using the household chores and organizing routine as a means to teach your children how to become capable adults. They likely will not recognize the investment now, but as an adult they will witness others their own age have trouble with tasks they mastered while children, and will no doubt be grateful for the skills they seemed to effortlessly learn while in your care.
Originally posted 2008-08-23 06:38:28. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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