Signs of laziness versus responsibility.
I was asked to write a post on laziness. Where do I start with a subject like this? How about identifying some tell-tale signs that show laziness on your part.
- Sloppy preparation
- Winging it, instead of any planning
- Waiting for the last minute to plan
- Not giving 100% to the task at hand
- Sleeping in in avoidance of the day
- A rotten attitude on your child’s part
- Procrastination
- Avoidance
- Feeling overwhelmed, so you don’t do anything at all
- Looking for things to do that don’t include or involve your child
- Guilt, that sense of knowing you should be doing something about it but you’re avoiding it
- Fear of the unknown, including that you don’t know the answers yourself
- Giving yourself reasons not to have to do something you know you should do
- Unwillingness & laziness on the child’s part to try
- Having the time to do something not relating to your child that has instant results (e.g. baking, creating worksheets, anything that isn’t as pressing as what you should be doing with and for your child today)
To identify any of these, you have to be willing to be honest with yourself. Frankly honest. Brutally honest. The kind of honest that hurts because you know it’s true that you’re simply avoiding what you know you need to do for your child, and you’ve been choosing to do what you want to do instead.
If you want your child to give 100%, then you have to demonstrate to them how to do that and that you do it. They will learn from you – more by what they see you do than what you say. Laziness in you will breed laziness in your children. But, diligence on you will breed diligence on them!
As I have said before, even if your child is in public or private school, every parent IS a homeschooler, as it is their responsibility to oversee their child’s education and make the decisions as to how that will get accomplished. It is up to you how you see that come to pass in your child’s youth.
Admiral Rickover, the father of the American Nuclear Navy said that “Responsibility is a unique concept… You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you… If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else.” (from Good Reads Quotes) He was a man who understood what it meant to stand in a position of authority, and knew that the buck did indeed stop with him.
By his example, those men who served under him (including a young man named Jimmy Carter) also knew that if anything went awry on their watch, the buck stopped with them, thus making everyone accountable to the proper exercise of the authority with which they were entrusted, and diligent in every endeavor therein. This enormously valuable quality has been largely lost in our society. It remains a truth, as truth is always truth, but people no longer hold themselves accountable and others have diminished the repercussions of a lack of taking responsibility for one’s actions so as to not be found wanting in this themselves.
Your responsibility as the parent or guardian of a child is solely yours. It does not lessen when you send your child to school to be educated by someone else. You will still hold yourself accountable, realizing that if you don’t do it, it’s presumptive to assume someone else will, and you will have your child’s best interest at heart.
If
you can take this position with the gravity it is due, you will not become lazy in the education of your child. You will ‘grab the bull by the horns’ and get stuck in to find how best to reach the goals you have for your child’s education.
