Future-Ready: Why Home Activities Should Be More Collaborative

Are you doing things for your kids to keep them away from failure, or together with your kids for more experience-based learning? Join the #DoItTogether Movement and start co-creation activities at home today.

Here’s a question for all the parents: how do you know when it’s time to let your child be more independent? Your guiding love as a parent may overwhelm your sense of nurturing to enable your kids to be filled with the sense of discovery, wonder, and self-fulfillment. Granted, you may approach this style of close-knit, hand-holding parenting with pure intentions–you only want the best for your kid while keeping them safe and on the right track. But as a result of this, children can grow up to be spoiled and over-dependent who can’t even do the simplest of household tasks since it has always been done for them. In fact, based on a study by market research firm Toluna, 7 out of 10 Filipino moms are at risk of over-parenting, especially when it comes to home, school, and kitchen duties.

Even as early as 5 years old, your kid can already be trained and equipped with skills that will help them become more independently capable as they grow, both physically and mentally. Lady’s Choice launched the Do It Together Movement where you can learn a few home activities you can start doing with your kids today that serve as foundational building-blocks for a future defined by self-sufficiency, positivity, adaptability, connection, and empathy. Here’s a quick round-up of some of them:

Related: 11 Small Parenting Wins Worth Celebrating

Kitchen co-creations

If you’re an avid cook, taking command of the kitchen feels amazing. However, there are some activities you can delegate to your kids to make them more involved in meal preparations. Entertain suggestions from your kids on what meals and ingredients they want to have, and hand them tools to use in meal prep. Give them a whisk and allow them to stir up, or a spoon to gather sauces and pastes. Even tasks as simple as setting up the table together already give them the sense of involvement in the meal. For a true moment of co-creation, here’s a suggestion: let them go hands-on in breakfast sandwich preparations by doing it together, side-by-side. It’s a meal that’s simple enough to make for the whole family with their favorite ingredients and Lady’s Choice spreads, even your kid can help out. Just make sure to leave the knife work to yourself.

Co-tending the garden

Over the past year, your kid may consider the home as their entire world. But as parents, always expose them to the great (and safe) outdoors, such as your backyard. Hold the hose together when watering the plants, and discuss the importance of caring for nature. Let them appreciate the fresh blooms or identify various species. If you also have seeds from your last meal prep, why not plant them together in soil? This extends their responsibility to not only care for themselves, but for the environment as well. We’d hate to see the next generation grow to adore just concrete, steel, and glass from being highly exposed to technology and the four walls of their room all day.

Co-sorting for donations

In the spirit of boosting your kids’ acts of care, empathy, and outward support, assist them in your next cleaning day by sorting out items they’re willing to donate to local charities and foundations. These can be going through their wardrobe and looking for smaller items, or packing away toys they have outgrown. Instilling community support to kids at an early age grows their circles of care, making them more aware of our social climate as they grow and expand their worldview. These are topics that can enter family conversations, since grade school curricula also tackle this awareness, making them more informed of others’ needs aside from their own. But not only could this benefit them socially, but also make them continuously conscious of their personal belongings.

Co-nurturing the family’s pets

For a practice you can do daily, especially if you already have a little fur buddy at home, assist your kid in caring for your pet. Fill out meal bowls and water together, or even take turns in baths and grooming. Not only does this bring them closer with the home’s little bundle of joy, but also teaches the sense of caring for another life apart from theirs. This activity is different from gardening or donating as it’s a daily occurrence in the house. Practicing this unleashes their compassionate and nurturing sides–aspects left untouched if over-parenting takes control and dependency becomes the norm.

Starting these new habits with your kids is a must to raise kids who are successful, independent, and focused, and kind to others. This is the thrust of Lady’s Choice in their #DoItTogether Movement, a campaign that encourages parents to help their children become future-ready by doing things together instead of doing things for them. These crucial co-creation activities begin at home and teach children essential traits to build as they power through their bright futures, even without a guiding hand to help them.

If hand-holding leads to holding them back from self-sufficiency, then confidently standing by their side and being a guiding presence sets them on the path they choose to take. It is only by doing it together can you see that spark of accomplishment in your children.

Learn more about collaborative parenting and be a part of the Lady’s Choice #DoItTogether Movement by visiting them on their Facebook page.