Teach Your Child To Weigh Consequences
Decision making can be considered fun for a child given the opportunity to do so, but with this opportunity, comes the need to the child to be aware of the various corresponding consequences of any and all decisions made.
What Can Happen
This part of the decision making exercise may not be as much fun but would have to be considered nonetheless. This is to make the child understand that the decision making task has many connecting facets.
Even at a young age the child should be taught the importance of weighing all the possible consequences of the decision made.
This will help the child look at the eventual decision in a different light as they learn to understand that these decisions have corresponding consequences that they would have to live by.
Ideally the parent should start by teaching the child that any decision made would be solely based on the child’s choice thus making the responsibility of the outcome of the decision chosen also the responsibility of the child.
There would also be the need to point out that any decision made without clearly weighing all options would be a bad way to start the decision making exercise, as the probability of a poor outcome would be quite certain.
Teaching a child to consider everyone who would be eventually affected by the decision is also one way of making the child weigh all the consequences adequately.
Being careful to listen to one’s needs and yet at the same time consider how these needs would affect others, will teach the child the invaluable lesson or habit of learning how to be considerate always.
It is also a good idea to point out to the child, that a decision that may seem negative presently may evolve into something more positive as the decision is allowed to run its course.