What are the benefits of self management for children?
Anjali, a wisp of a girl with colorful dreams in her eyes, was living in a constant state of frantic hurry. She was studying in class 7 and lacked a meticulous guide in navigating her student life since her early childhood with low self management. Every morning began the same way when her papa called, “Anjali, School bus in ten minutes only! Wake up!” And Anjali? Leaving her fantasy dreams aside, she would scramble out of bed. A whirlwind of unrushed hair, mismatched socks, books left at home, homework crumpled at the bottom of her bag! She would leave!
Weekends were no better for her, when she saw her cousin, with their arranged book bags and planned games, reminding her of her own shortcomings! Anjali’s parents understood that her struggle was not for trying, but rather for the absence of tools or guides on how to navigate the storms. They got some practical advice from Confident Personality and started understanding the importance of self-management for kids.
It would have not been so hard for Anjali if she had been aware of self management since her early days. This is a superpower every parent craves to see in their child but a few end up successful! It’s like being the conductor of your own life, directing your energy and actions to create a beautiful symphony of success.
Let’s find the essence of self management is important for children and how parents should start implementing them as early as possible.
How Self-Management Works in Children?
When a child breezes through a daily routine, tackles schoolwork, focuses on hobbies, and even calmly navigates a disagreement with a classmate, it is, as a whole regarded as self management. This is an internal orchestra made up of several instruments such as:
- Regulation of Emotions: Self management helps children recognize various aspects of their age-appropriate emotional self control and healthily manage them. They understand the ways to express their feelings appropriately Whether it’s the frustration of a dropped toy or the excitement of an upcoming birthday party.
- Goal Setting & Planning: This is vital when it comes to defining clear goals – big or small – and breaking them down into smaller ones to make them more achievable self care for children. The planning would be practical enough with the potential or capabilities. The practice of self management makes them aware of these facts.
- Organization & Time Management: Guided self-management skills allow kids organizational skills to utilize their time and resources to be efficient in completing tasks and meeting deadlines. They start possessing the resourcefulness of their backpacks, homework folders, and their own energy!
- Self-Discipline & Motivation: This is a beautiful aspect of childhood when a child focuses on perseverance for childish anger management by the adults. Self-management skills help them stay focused on their goals, may it be long-term or short-term by overcoming situational distractions, and pushing through challenges.
While these multi-layered self-management aspects seem time-consuming and complex to handle for the tender mind, these are actually something to be followed with continuity under the kind and liberal supervision of parents.
Anjali, with these Self-management learning objectives from Confident Personality, was curious about how she could break the vicious chain her life was bound with. Her uncle made her parents feel the importance of self-management. Anjali’s parents listened to them and promised to implement them on a regular basis.
Why Does Self-Management Matters?
Self management is more than just presenting fit, appealing, and tidy in front of other people. The foundation holds the idea of a long-term balance among all the pillars of life. Self management can benefit you by harmonizing several aspects:
- Success in Academics: Good self-management equips children with several skills. They learn how to plan for class tests or examinations. By understanding the importance of self-management for students like staying focused in class, they open up ways to complete homework on time.
Managing time effectively becomes easy for them while they grow their experience in prioritizing tasks and avoiding last-minute scrambles.
- Emotional Well-being: Children grow fast when they learn to regulate their emotions. They become mature enough to navigate stress, frustration, and disappointment in constructive ways. These inner skills empower them to know about their feelings and, as a result, they express them properly. The parrel growth of coping skills for children ultimately inculcates the sense of life’s ups and downs.
- Relationship Building: Self-management skills lead children to acquire good communication skills, which work as the key ingredients for building strong relationships with emotional intelligence and self-management.
They get the virtue of listening attentively, expressing their needs, and resolving misunderstandings or conflicts peacefully. They go on strengthening their bonds with friends, family, and teachers.
- Wise Decision-Making: When children learn to maintain a clear head with a well-managed schedule, their views broaden, paving the path to making decisions wisely. Thus, teaching decision-making to kids through self-management makes them think critically with the help of the heart and brain to analyze situations and weigh the consequences of their choices.
- Resilience & Problem-Solving: Children, managing themselves on their own, become aware of unstoppable life challenges, and as they grow, they develop a sense of immunity. Various self-management activities let them know the ways to overcome obstacles, learn from mistakes, and have an inclusive mindset.
This way, when the children become teenagers or young adults, they equip themselves with problem-solving skills with super resilience. That’s why, self management is measured as the conductor’s baton that allows them to create their own symphony of success.
Then How Would You Cultivate These Attributes?
Keep in mind that self-management skills are to be nurtured in children, not to be installed in a blink. It’s a journey a parent should follow to make a better future for their child. The hierarchical steps of parenting tips for teaching self-management are:
When Your Child is in His/Her Early Childhood,
You’ve to be careful for the most tender member of your family who is around 2-5 years old.
- You can make consistent routines for meals, study time, playtime, and bedtime.
- Encouraging independence in kids can be a great step. Like, ask which color shirt they want to wear.
- Be their cushion when they feel emotional — like say, “I see you’re feeling frustrated” in a childish manner.
- Don’t just stick to their results, rather appreciate their every effort to influence Kids organizational skills positively.
This stage requires that your children feel that you’re with them and that’s why they proceed with experimenting with their self-management for kindergarten.
When Your Child is in His/Her Middle Childhood,
Your child starts becoming a part of the bustling world of activities at the age of 6-10. This period requires a real-time specific guide:
- Create visual aids of self-management activities for children for your child to help them organize their tasks. (Use calendars, to-do lists)
- Help them break larger tasks into small attainable portions.
- Teach them the self-management objectives to regulate emotions and focus on good communication skills.
- Make them aware of time management, and introduce timer or alarm tools with them.
This is the period to start effective socialization, work management, and time segregation between studies and playtime.
When Your Child is in His/Her Late Childhood,
Your child’s goals become more clearer and specific when they are between the ages of 11-13. Your contribution to self management for children as a parent in this pre-teenage or early teenage stage is to build a support base for them in all aspects:
- Guide them in setting measurable, relevant, and time-bound goals.
- Develop ideas for action plans to achieve their goals.
- Teach them the ways to make decisions and make them alert of the potential consequences.
- Don’t make the mistake of binding children. Encourage age-appropriate independence in doing their schoolwork or chores as self care activities for children.
- Make the bond stronger with them by initiating a safe space to discuss the novice challenges.
In all these three stages, you as a caring parent become the light-bearer for them to grow self-management skills by being on their side on each success or setback.
Anjali, after a few weeks of self-rule, could manage all her tasks on her own by the Art of self-management and she got the unprecedented energy to utilize weekends in learning violin she felt peaceful and satisfied in times of unrest and difficulties.
Skill Continuation: Which Strategies Can Teenagers Follow?
When a child enters the stage of teenage, it’s not like their struggle has already ended and they succeeded in acquiring the proper management skills. It’s quite natural to have a continuation of the self control system in this stage also when adolescence goes parallelly.
- Teenage requires to move from a directive approach to a collaborative one when the teenager can discuss their estimated journey with mates.
- The schedule management becomes more realistic in terms of emotional regulation for youth incorporating academic pressure, extracurricular activities, social time, and relaxation.
- Teenagers would encourage themselves to build healthy habits like adequate sleep, regular exercise, a balanced diet, etc for further career self management.
- Building channels for open and appropriate communication is essential to follow in this stage that would make them feel comfortable in seeking help.
Whatever your dream for your child in terms of his/her future, remember that self management is not about creating a perfect child. It’s about inserting the potential in them so that in whatever way they lead their life, they won’t lose the courage to take risks. As it’s a well-conducted symphony from the most beautiful music comes from, let’s hand over responsibilities to them and see them compose rhymes of their own life! These gets tough to maintain self care for children of emotionally immature parents as Anjali had. Hence, they require themselves to work on them consciously, wisely, and realistically.