When Should We Expect Children To Become Responsible For Their Actions

Today’s children and young adults are increasingly not taking responsibility for their actions. You see this so often on TV, social media and in general life. My question is who’s fault is this? For not wanting to cause outrage, it’s us as parents.

Many parents teach their children right from wrong from a very early and if they do something wrong they must face up to the fact that they need to take full responsibility. I know I have always tried to do that.

Unfortunately many parents today just won’t accept that their children can do any wrong. This is without a doubt producing a section of young people that feel they can do what they want and face no punishment for their actions, strangely in some ways it’s not their fault.

I’m sure we have all been to our local park with our little ones and come across other small children with their parents who are being disruptive, rude, nasty to other children and generally being very badly behaved.

What do the parents do? Absolutely nothing! Actually they are doing something! Sitting on their smartphones or generally sitting there ignoring the situation. Instead they should be telling their children that it is unacceptable behaviour. I have lost count over the years that either my wife or I have had to tell another child to wait their turn on the slide or to stop pushing and shoving our girls, while their parents sit there doing nothing. Totally irresponsible parenting in my humble opinion.

How many times have we heard about parents storming up the school to have a go at teachers because their little boy or girl has been reported by teachers as a disruptive naughty child? All of a sudden the parents are defending them saying it wasn’t them, yet everybody at the school including parents and other children know they are plain and simple naughty kids.

Parents need to accept sometimes that their child is not the angel of good behaviour, they have convinced themselves of, and work with people around them such as teachers etc to make their child into responsible young adults, who when they do something wrong, face up to it and accept responsibility for their actions.

So back to my original question.

When do we start teaching children to be responsible for their actions?

Children are like sponges, and they learn right from wrong very early. Most likely from about the age of two. They know exactly that throwing a toy at a sibling is wrong, and need to be told that it is unacceptable behaviour.

I firmly believe that the younger that children are taught to accept responsibility for their actions, the more chance we have of producing a generation of caring adults who respect their fellow human being and care about other people’s feelings, but this can only come from us as parents. They are after all the image of us and will learn from our behaviour and attitudes. I genuinely feel children should be responsible for their actions from as young as two years old.

My reasoning is very simple. As they say talk to and treat your fellow human being how you want to be spoken to and treated. For me the danger is if we don’t teach our children good manners and to take responsibility we will bring a generation of thugs and bullies, and nobody wants that.

Some parents, and I don’t mean all parents by any means, should not be frightened of telling their young children that they need to take responsibility. You should not be put off just because you might upset your child otherwise they will never learn right from wrong behaviour.

I would love to know what you think.