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Decision Making Skills

Do your kids have excellent decision-making skills?  I don’t mean, do you think they can decide things.  I mean have to deliberately sit with them and help them with several processes of making a decision.  This process might look like sitting down as a family and including your kids in decisions that affect them.  Give them a chance to talk, help them make their case, and refine their argument for something.  Listen respectfully and consider their decisions and opinions when you’re making the decision.  Can you model ethical decision-making for your kids?  Share with them a decision or situation you have in your work that requires a decision and help them see how you took it apart in favor of the right choice.  Weighing consequences of pros and cons, then once a decision is made, stick to it.

I believe it is also important to point out that making a decision does not mean putting it off or deciding.  Kids need to understand that it gives someone else the power to decide for them when they do that.  When I was young, I had a difficult time making a decision.  I don’t believe that I understood the importance of just making a decision, that in many cases, it wasn’t life or death.  For example, I am choosing what to eat at a restaurant.  It is an easy decision, and often whatever we want will be pleasing to eat.  It is essential to point out that making a mistake is also okay.  Help your kids to learn from it and to move on.  Do not protect them from the consequences of poor decisions.

If you can encourage your kids to journal, help them write about some of their decisions and how they turned out.  Sit with your kids today and talk with them about making various decisions and help them learn a process you use in making decisions.  Decision-making skills are life skills that will serve your kids for all of their days.

For an another look at Parent Tips, please see my new website at Parenting Tips for Teenagers: Tip #1: Understanding Resilience — THE KIDS SUCCESS

Yours for Better Parenting,

Rich