Do your homework, take out the rubbish, mow the lawn, make your bed.....blah blah blah blah".
I am a mother of 4 wonderful children, the youngest now almost 20 but oh how I do remember those days. My husband and I live alone now and the peace and quiet is sometimes deafening.

If you knew me during those years of turbulence raising 4 strong minded boys, who love every sport imaginable and had to participate in them all, then you would know that I was a little cowardly at forcing my children to do a lot. Enter my husband and they all ran scrambling for cover. At the time even I thought he was a gross overbearing rogue, however, in hind sight, and isn't that a grand thing, he was my saviour.

I was aware of the importance for children to perform small tasks in order for them to see their own worth but when every day I was faced with the inevitable "Do I have to?" or "I did that yesterday, it's his turn" or "in a minute", well you could say that I would have rather do the job myself.

My husband was a little more assertive in that area and well my boys knew it. Guess what happened as a result. They now know how to look after themselves, are very clean and tidy in their own home and know the value of a dollar earned.

During times of necessity, while I entertained a younger sibling in the car and rather than take 4 children into a store to purchase a bottle of milk or a loaf of bread, I taught my older boys to shop. I would send them to the corner store with a set amount of money to buy certain things. They were charged with the responsibility and the challenge to purchase as many of the items as possible from the list with as little money as possible. The change they were allowed to keep. Mind you they were given the task of locating the correct items, not short changing the product. Needless to say, now they are very thrifty and mathematically minded. In fact, my youngest son was Dux of his school in year 6 with top scores in maths in year 10.

Balance in all things and remember that your child is in your care for the early learning years so that with your guidance, you will present a well balanced, kind, thoughtful, industrious and inspirational adult to the world.

Your child knows only what you teach them and if you begin at the first stages of learning to promote good qualities and self worth to a child then you have promoted yourself into the realm of great parenting

Learn more about this author, Debbie Morris.
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