Responsibility is one of the most important things to teach our kids. But how exactly do you go about explaining it to them? In this video, I explain what I’ve done with my kids.

Video Notes:

Children need to understand that responsibility is about two things:

• Hope
• Control
• If you blame others for your problems, you don’t have much hope because you can’t really control what others do.
• But if you can recognize that you have control over the direction of your life, regardless of things that happened to you that were not your fault, then you have hope.

If you can make choices that lead you to a place you don’t like, doesn’t it make sense that you can also make choices that will lead you to a place you do like?

• Responsibility becomes about choices.

A good definition of responsibility to teach children:

• Responsibility is doing things you don’t have to be reminded to do.
• If you want to achieve more, you generally have to take on more responsibility.

How have you explained responsibility to your children?