Ways to Recognize A Child's Struggle For Autonomy Part 2

The second way to recognize a child's struggle to develop autonomy is to learn best practices for supporting the development of autonomy in children. A way to do this is to give children opportunities to do things by themselves. For example, when my child wanted to poor the milk on her cereal, I allowed her to do this yet guided the milk carton so that she didn't spill. The milk carton was also too heavy for her so by guiding the carton I also helped her be able to hold it. When a parent does this a parent is teaching their child they can do anything for themselves and the parent is taking the time to teach the child they can do anything for themselves and the parent is taking the time to teach them even though yet it would be less messy and take less time to do it yourself.

The third way to recognize a child's struggle for autonomy is for parents to learn how to communicate in order to learn how to support the development of autonomy in their children. A parent can do this by letting children have a choice in the chores they have. For example, my child liked to help me vacuum the stairs, however, she was too young to use the vacuum and to use that kind of machine. So, I went and bought her a toy vacuum and let her use that. She 'vacuumed' the stairs using her toy vacuum and I went behind her using the actual vacuum and this allowed her to vacuum the stairs and gave her the opportunity to see that she could do it and by herself.

A parent's major task in developing autonomy is to help children be safe and learn appropriate social skills and behaviors without using discipline to be mean or shameful. A parent should be encouraging  their children to do something, not making them feel bad because they can't do something. A parent shouldn't be telling a child how the way they're doing a task is wrong, a parent should be letting the child figure it out themselves and showing them and teaching them how to do something, not doing it for them and not telling them that how they do it is wrong. A parent should be building a child's autonomy not destroying it/ For a parent a major task in developing autonomy is teaching their children the skills and behaviors they need to be safe and to get along in the world.