Teaching Responsibility

Now that we talked about age appropriateness, I feel responsibility is the next step. Even at a young age we can teach our child about responsibility. My husband aka "PaganDad" says we live in a zoo. Yes we do have quite a few pets in our home. We have 3 cats, 1 dog(an american pit bull terrier), a parakeet and a corn snake.

My daughters responsibilities are that every day she feeds and waters her parakeet, and once a week she feeds the corn snake. We also alternate who does the dishes. When we have company coming over she will clean the guest bathroom(her bathroom). I've never asked her to do this. One day I told her what chores we were doing as we had company coming over, I'm the type that the house needs to be spotless when someone comes over. We did everything we normally would do and I was going to start on the bathroom, when Little Bit(daughter) says that she wants to clean it. And she knows where the spray is and the towels and she was going to do it. (A reminder my daughter is 6). She did a good job, I checked it after she was done. She missed a few little spots and I fixed it but I was very proud of her.

We instill in her pride of doing a good job no matter what she does. She even initiates checking on the cats food during the day, to make sure they won't go hungry. She would love to walk the dog but she knows Odie(the dog) would knock her down.

When a child asks for a pet they are wanting a form of responsibility. Now whether or not they stick to that responsibility is up to us the parent. Yes I have to remind Little Bit to feed Bob(parakeet) on certain days. All ages of kids want their parents to be proud of them. And by giving them a bit of responsibility is a way for their child to shine. Remember we would rather have that positiveness than those negative outbursts. So let them shine and show they can do even the smallest exercises like help put away the dishes or load the dishwasher even if it's not done the way you like it. They are showing you they are growing up in to responsible children who will grow into responsible adults.

Teaching children age appropriateness

As a pagan mom I struggle with teaching my 6 yr old daughter age appropriateness. She is a very well read 6 yr old. Everyone who meets her thinks she acts much older than what she is. For example: We went to the grocery store and we went and looked at the paper backs and there was a Charlaine Harris book which I've already read. She sees the cover and says is that that True Blood story you watch on tv. I told her yes it is and she asks me why can't I watch that show. I explained to her that it wasn't appropriate at this time for her to watch it because she was to young and she says to me, Is that because they have naked people in it. I said yes that is one of the reasons why she shouldn't watch it. But there are other reasons why she shouldn't watch it especially all the different issues such as murder,sex,drugs and things most parents don't want their 6 yr old to know about.

So how do you teach your children age appropriateness? I believe in being completely honest with my daughter. Which is not always the easiest thing to deal with especially on topics that are way beyond age level. At a young age she wanted to know about boys and girls and why they were different. I actually drew pictures, we explained that girls have vaginas and boys have a penis. No they weren't exact pictures. But more internal pictures. She even went as far as to ask her dad to see his penis. Of course we declined that and said she was too young and when she was grown up a bit she would meet the right man and see her husbands. We even explained how women and men made a baby using exact terms with a little bit of age appropriateness. So how do I deal with this, Always tell your child the truth. But at the same time don't take away their innocence.

As a pagan mom, you want them to believe in Santa,( yes all though christmas isn't pagan we incorporate him in Yule)Faeries,Unicorns,and even trolls and gnomes. Believing is part of being a pagan parent. If they don't believe in the magickal creatures they will never believe in the god/dess. We as parents have to instill these beliefs for them to understand the world around them. Without belief where would we be as a society. Life would seem hopeless. So teaching appropriateness and instilling belief is our way of raising a child who acts like an adult. Which is what every parent wants for their child. To grow into spiritual adults who understand life is a magickal journey we just need to teach them at the appropriate time.