Tools for Raising Successful Children
Some of the most powerful character training tools are appliances in your kitchen and items in your broom closet. They are called the stove, the dishwasher, the vacuum, the dust pan, and the broom.
A 40-Year Harvard Study
A 40-year Harvard study has pointed out that children who did things as simple as chores while they were young earned more money and had more job satisfaction. They had better marriages and closer relationships with their children. They experienced more joy, health, and lived longer lives. This study started out as an effort to understand juvenile delinquency, the study followed the lives of 456 teen-age boys from inner-city Boston, many from broken and dysfunctional homes at poverty level. The fact that stood out after forty years when they were compared was: regardless of intelligence, family income, ethnic background or amount of education, those who had worked as boys, even at simple household chores, enjoyed happier and more productive lives than those, who had not.
“It’s not difficult to explain,” stated George E. Vaillant, the Dartmouth psychiatrist who made the discovery. “boys who worked in the home or community gained competence and came to feel they were worthwhile members of society. And because they felt good about themselves, others felt good about them.”
Dr. John E. Obedzinski, of the Center for Families and Children in Corte Madera, Calif., agrees. He ha found that even five-year-olds benefit from performing small household duties. “It makes them feel they’re contributing and are important to the family,” he says.
H. Stephen Glenn, who presents child-rearing workshops throughout the country declares that parents who “do everything” for their children may actually perform a disservice. “Many kids themselves realize the value of this ethic,” says Glenn. “One eleven-year-old stated it beautifully. He told his mother, ‘You only need to know three things about kids. Don’t hit them too much, don’t yell at them too much, and don’t do too much for them.”
The link between what the men had done as boys and how they turned out as adults was startlingly sharp. Those highest on the boyhood-activity scale were twice as likely to have warm relations with a wide variety of people, five times as likely to be well paid. The researchers also found that I.Q., amount of schooling, and family social and economic class made no real difference in how the boys turned out.
Adapted from an article: “How to Raise a Happy Child” A January, 1986, Reader’s Digest article by Edwin Kiester, Jr., and Sally Valente Kiester
Additional Articles
Chores Part 1: A Key Factor to Success
Chores Part 2: A Noble Plan that Motivates
Chores Part 3: Maintaining the Momentum
Chores Part 4: Six Pointers to Keep in Mind
Resources available through IBLP IBLP Store
Posted by Chris Hogan on Thursday, March 22, 2007 at 17:16 PM
