Parental Control Over The Time Management Of Their Kids - Research Paper Example

Should Parents Manage Children’s Time? Introduction and thesis statement This essay aims at critically analyzing the need for parents to be involved in management of their children’s time. The essay will therefore endeavor to respond to the question as to whether parents should manage their children’s time. The paper will attempt to examine arguments to support the question while also providing counter arguments for the same. Children today find themselves with a lot of activities to perform at any particular time, with very limited amount of time. The children have to juggle between academics, time with their friends, sports, house chores and other activities that are of paramount importance both for their social and academic development (Fiore, 2006). This makes time management very important to the children as well as adults, because if time is not properly managed, the children may end up overspending time in one activity while forgetting about others which may be of more priority. This image shows various activities that contemporary children are engaged in from time to time. This includes reading, communication, surfing the internet and making friends. It is important for parents to help their children to manage all these activities in order to avoid overindulgence in one activity over the others. Arguments for parents managing Children’s time Dorothy Rich, in her book MegaSkill: Building Our Children’s Character and achievement for School and Life (2008) states that parents have a major role in helping their children to learn how to manage their own time independently. According to Rich (2008), the main role of parenting is helping children to become self-disciplined and help them to manage their own affairs in future. Time management can be described as the practice of exercising control over how much time one spends performing specific tasks (Rich, 2008). Time management aims at increasing one’s productivity, efficiency and effectiveness in the particular activities they do. Time management requires a lot of skills, techniques and tools that will help one to accomplish specific activities, projects or personal goals (Morgenstern, 2004). Time management is not a skill that one cultivates when they reach adulthood, but it is a skill that one develops over time from their childhood (Fiore, 2006). Parents have accountability in helping their children learn the importance of time management. The parents themselves have a lot to do in their own hands and need to learn to manage their own time before transferring the skills to their children (Le Blanc, 2008). Time management involves creating a conducive environment for one to perform their activities effectively, prioritizing their activities, doing the activities based on those priorities and finally striving to reduce the amount of time spent on non-prioritized activities and tasks. A scientific study by the University of Pennsylvania pointed out that self-discipline in relation to time management is a better predictor of one’s academic performance among adolescents and young students, as opposed to one’s Intelligent Quotient (IQ)(Rich, 2008). The same study also noted that girls are seemingly better than boys when it comes to time management. This study lays a great emphasis on the importance of time management among young children as it has a trickledown effect in other areas including their academic performance. The parent’s role in time management for children should only be limited to that of guiding the children to acquire the skills necessary for effective time management. Rich identifies five main areas that the parents need to focus on when helping their children to become self-disciplined with regard to time management. These are body hygiene, family time line, homework, television watching and how to avoid excuses. These five areas are meant to help children keep track of their time, develop organizational and planning skills. With regard to body hygiene, parents should, from a very early age, teach their children that their bodies are beautiful and that they need to maintain their own body hygiene by remembering to brush their teeth, separating dirty clothes from clean clothes, and the importance of having a bath. This should begin when the children are in their pre-school age or when they join kindergarten (Le Blanc, 2008). The parents can use a chart with images to help illustrate to the children how to take care of their hygiene. The chat should contain all the things the child needs to accomplish within a specific time in order to manage their hygiene. This teaches children the importance of finishing specific tasks efficiently while also understanding the reasons for doing the tasks. Another area of focus for parents is in helping children to remember some of the most important days, dates, and events in their own lives or in that of other significant family members. The children should be able to remember their own birthdays every year as well as other important dates. This helps to create a sense of time in the children while also developing their planning skills with regard to preparing for these events. The parents can help children manage these events using a special calendar that will help children to keep track of the activities within specified times. Another important area is managing the amount of time children spend watching television or playing. Parents should guide their children on the amount of hours they should spend on watching television or playing with their friends. These leisure activities can end up taking most of the child’s time at the expense of more important activities such as their schoolwork. Parents ought to discuss with their children and advise them on the best times and programs to watch on television in order for the children to manage other activities too. This gives the children a sense of prioritizing issues and managing their leisure time effectively. Parents should also have a role in helping children manage their academics by helping them in their homework and coordinating with teachers to find out about how the children are faring on in school. This enables the children to appreciate the value of their studies thereby learning to prioritize their education ahead of other things. The parents should also make sure that the children are able to follow their guidelines effectively without having to give excuses for procrastination or for failing to do certain tasks. The children should know the consequences of not managing time effectively such as diminishing productivity and poor results(Fiore, 2006). When children get to their adolescent years, they ought to be in a status able to manage their own time by prioritizing their activities. One important tool to help the children manage their time is the Steven Covey Time management Matrix (Covey, 2001). This is a great planning tool introduced by Dr. Steven Covey to help increase productivity of individuals with regard to time management. The matrix, also known as the Quadrant ranks activities in terms of their importance and urgency in order to help an individual to focus only on the urgent activities first before proceeding to the less prioritized activities. Counter Arguments Children are at a very critical stage of their development where they try to find out their own personality and shape their future lifestyles. At this point in their development, children, especially teenagers, always want to do everything on their own. Involvement of parents in the affairs of children may appear to be limiting the freedom of children. In some cases, children may become rebellious, hence making the parents efforts to be futile. Managing time for children also hinders their own development. Children should be left to shape their own character based on what they are taught in school and at home. Instead of parents managing time for children, they should tell the children the importance of time management and let the children manage their own time. This will help the children to grow in to great adults. Conclusion Time management is a very important ingredient for success. The earlier one cultivates the habit for time management the better it is for them in the future. Children need to know the importance of managing their time as early as possible. This will help them develop into responsible adulthood. In as much as it is important for parents to be involved in managing time for their children, this should be done carefully in ordr to let children appreciate time management. References Covey, S. (2001).First Things First, (Reprint edition) Free Press. Available at http://books.google.ca/books/about/First_Things_First.html?id=mdOWMBcKjS8C Fiore, N.A (2006).The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt- Free Play. New York: Penguin Group. Available at http://www.scribd.com/doc/46460137/The-Now-Habit-Neil-a-Fiore Le Blanc, R. (2008). Achieving Objectives Made Easy! Practical goal setting tools & proven time management techniques. Maarheeze: Cranendonck Coaching. Available at http://www.nuibooks.com/achieving-objectives-made-easy-practical-goal-setting-tools-- p-PDF-121609/ Morgenstern, J. (2004). Time Management from the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Taking Control of Your Schedule—and Your Life (2nd ed.). New York: Henry Holt/Owl `Books. http://www.amazon.com/Time-Management-Inside-Second- Edition/dp/0805075909 Rich, D. (2008). MegaSkill: Building Our Children’s Character and achievement for School and Life.Sourcebooks. http://www.scribd.com/doc/163220862/MegaSkills%C2%A9-Building-Our-Children-s-Character-and-Achievement-for-School-and-Life Read More