When we begin taking responsibility for our actions, we reclaim our personal power, and the same goes for kids as they grow through the stages to adulthood. Handicaps or disabilities may slow down the process, but even in the smallest of ways most can attain some responsibility over their actions in this important social skill.

Owning responsibility for our actions

When we stop placing blame on others or circumstances outside of ourselves, we reclaim our personal power. If a kid starts a fight and blames another kid for provoking, it shows something needs to still be learned about accepting responsibility for failed communication skills.

When we put ourselves back into the driver's seat of the car of our life, we determine the roads we will follow. And, when we pick a destination that will bring about good, we set ourselves on the course that keeps us feeling harmonious while journeying. That is the lesson kids need to learn from us. When we own responsibility for our actions and the results, kids have a model to follow.

The bottom line is that we are in charge of our decisions, so we may as well make those that are for the best to maintain or create harmony and happiness in our life. The earlier kids learn they are responsible for maintaining personal harmony, the earlier they will acquire the self esteem that follows being able to make decisions that benefit all.

Adopting a positive attitude

A positive attitude allows productive thoughts for the best solution and direction to follow, to come to our awareness, ready for our action. We reclaim our personal power when we self-determine our actions. Kids learn this from the modeling of responsible adults in all aspects of living.

As adults, we have rights and responsibilities, personally, and in our family or living situations. We need to make the choices; not let someone else choose for us, unless we specifically are in such a debilitated position that we can't choose for ourselves.

And as kids mature, they need to be expected to take on more and more personal responsibility, so they can step out into the adult world as the best people they can be.

Making responsible decisions

When we delegate our care or decision making to another adult, when we are still able to decide for ourselves, we are giving away our life to them. That both gives away our life and puts an unfair burden on another person, as we could come back to them with the words "it was your idea," or "you made me do it." Kids need to get beyond the stages of someone else making their decisions for them before they are really "adult."

The outcome of being responsible for our own decisions is a relaxation and peacefulness in our body - mind, and a sense of contentment with life in general. We are the drivers in the seat of the car of our lives, determining our destination and the roads to travel.

It is our right as an individual to be self-directed. With our kids, let's model responsibility and gradually let go the reins of control, encouraging their self-responsibility. Then, when they finally step out the door into adult lives we know we've done our best and the rest is up to them!

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The entire series is in this book:
Yoga for all Kids - With illustrations and descriptions, how to teach 4 styles of meditation and 15 gentle moving yoga poses that can be used as a basic motor skills lesson plan, plus 12 how to live chapters and a dictionary of 40 definitions of happiness in 83 pages. For kids of all ages and abilities - for teens and adults, too! Available as an Ebook or Print Book


Article by Susan Kramer