The education of children is an endless task, because every day there are new challenges and issues to work on. Children are not born knowing, none. They have to learn everything and they need someone, usually fathers and mothers, to dedicate themselves to teaching them values, to develop all their capacities and discover and identify what is right from what is wrong.
This is why on many occasions children are expected to behave in the correct way, without anyone having taught them to do so. Which translates into disappointment and anger, but in an unjustified way if no one has taught the child how to behave. This is very common in issues such as taking care of your personal things.
Children need to learn to take care of their things
For children, things have no economic value because are not aware of how important money is to their well-being. Therefore, they do not bother to take good care of their things so that they do not get lost, spoiled or break. Things that you have bought with all your effort and your love, that you hope your child will value, but that one day he stays in a corner or lying anywhere.
Therefore, it is essential to teach children such important things as the money's value, of work, responsibility, autonomy or gratitude, among many other fundamental lessons. Being grateful is the first step for the child to appreciate that you have made an effort for him to have that object. In that first lesson the child learns that things are not acquired just because, and here comes the second lesson, the value of work.
They have to have many things for their own well-being, such as the clothes they wear every day or their school supplies, which does not mean that they have to value them less than that toy that they want so much. In the second case, the whim entails an effort, teach your child to strive, to work to get those things they want. But essential things also have a value and the child must learn to take care of them, so you will not suffer because your child does not take care of his things.
How to teach my son to take care of his things
Your child does not take care of his things, perhaps because he has not yet learned how to do it. So you must start at the beginning, help him and teach him from the example. After each game you have to put things in order before moving on to the next lesson, spend a few minutes with your child to do it. If you don't want to cooperate, you won't be able to play any other games.
The rules must be followed, so you must not give in to the reproaches of the child or he will never learn. You must also teach him to take care of his school materials, for this, make sure that in your room you have a place for everything. It is not the same to have to order without knowing where to put everything, than to have a space prepared at all times.
Nor should you buy everything he asks for, even if you can afford it. Thus the child learns that things are easily achieved and when it comes time to take charge of their own things, frustrations and difficulty come to face problems. In the same way it is essential spend time on financial education.
Teach your children to save, to learn that money is not obtained by magic, that you have to work very hard to get it. Each child should have a piggy bank in which to store the money received for a task, a gift or a payment. This way you will discover all that you have to make an effort and save to have what you want. And something essential, teach them that even working and trying hard, you don't always get what you want.
Although it may seem cruel or too harsh a lesson for a child, it is very important that they do not reach adolescence or adulthood without having the necessary tools to face adversity. Everything you can teach your children from infancy will translate into a child mature, autonomous, with values and ability to face life However it may come.