A PARENT’S GUIDE TO RESPONSIBILITY
Dear Parents and Families,
This month we are focusing on the Character Counts Pillar of Responsibility. Our district believes
that every child has the potential to be responsible and we will do all that we can to promote this
pillar, but we need your help! Below is a list of ideas to work through with your family!
What can you do at home?
•Communicate unconditional love and approval regardless of whether or not your child makes
responsible choices.
•Be more concerned with the process of making good choices: how children come to their
decisions rather than the outcome of their decisions. Praise and encourage the good things,
the effort, and the decision making process that they went through.
•Offer choices with limits that you find acceptable. This helps to elicit responsibility without
threats or demands.
•Trust your child’s ability to make good decisions. Offer choices they can handle to help build
their experience in making decisions and choices.
•Allow your child to experience the consequences of their poor choices in order to help them
learn. Children learn from mistakes and will gain confidence in the act of being responsible for
their choices.
•Encourage responsible television watching. Watch programs with your children and
encourage discussions on how the characters handle situations and if they would choose to do
things differently if they were in that situation.
•Limit video game playing to a certain amount of time or link it as a reward for responsible
behavior. Children can learn that following structure and routine is a part of being
responsible.
