Responsiblity
“So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.” – Romans 14:12
I’ve written a parenting tip on “no excuses.” It is so much easier to make an excuse rather than take responsibility. We want to teach our kids to choose the harder but more rewarding road by owning up to their mistakes or intentional ways. I was trying to come up with ideas to teach this concept, and I really felt like role playing was a great way. I know we do role playing a lot, but acting out the right thing in play translates really easily to real life. They may recall doing the exercise and know the right way to respond in a situation. They may bury it somewhere in their subconscious and intuitively take the right path. Since they’ve practiced doing it right in play, they have more opportunity to make the right choices in life. My kids have a little drama in their blood, so they always like performing. I think it runs in the family as my niece is a natural on stage. Her leadership made it even more fun and successful. We did this exercise by having the kids act out the wrong way to respond to the situation and then try again doing it the right way. The right thing to do is say that it is your fault, and say you are sorry. I told them that sorry can always make things better. Here are some of the role play situations I came up with to do with our kids:
1. You get pulled over by a police because you are speeding.
2. You are late for school.
3. Your mom asked you to empty the dishwasher, but you didn’t do it.
4. You were playing ball in the house and broke one of the vases.
5. You have a friend over who is playing with your doll. You want it, so you take it back from her.
