by Rob Purifoy

Created on: September 06, 2009

Teaching accountability starts at an early age and in the home. If as a parent you walk behind everyone cleaning up messes and solving every problem, the child does not learn to be accountable for its actions, it's as simple as that. If we start with the topic of teaching children accountability then it must be taught that there are consequences for wrongful actions. If the child does something wrong, exhibits bad manners, or shows disrespect to the parent or others, there has to be a consequence to that action. Whereas, if the parent makes excuses to others or shows the child that they won't be punished for wrongful actions, they will not learn to be accountable.

The same holds true with training cats and dogs as their mentality is that of about the learning age of children, about 3 or 4 human years for most. If a cat is left to climb the curtains and shred the couch without intervention, they will deem it as okay and continue to behave in an unwanted manner. If a dog is allowed to soil the carpet and the human owner simply shakes his head and goes for the paper towel, the action will continue. It is not cruel and unusual punishment to teach dogs, cats or people the way things should be conducted, and in fact it's quite the opposite. If we don't teach our kids social behavior early on, they may end up being a scourge on society and wreaking havoc in the families life as well as others.

So how do we create an atmosphere of accountability? Well unfortunately the law and government has done most of that for us, most of it unwanted as it may be. Open communication with your expectations and rules is the first step. Rather than being complacent and non-confrontational with your children, tell them what the rules of the house are and what is expected of them. If the communicated rules of the "game" whether in house, sports or life are broken, there is a consequence. Some parents may think they are being too mean to their children with discipline and some fall victim to the motherly love aspect and let the child off with not so much as a suspension of a video game. While it may seem like the child is being made happy in the present, a few years down the road the police or other authority figure may not be so loving.

This will be a surprise to the child who was never taught to obey and also a rude awakening that ends up costing money and possibly worse for everyone. The fact is, most of us adults know how to be accountable so the question that should raised to some is, why don't we teach it to our kids?

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