Why Children Need A Daily Structure
Adults need routines just as children need them, because we adults think that it is only they who have to have them, but the reality is that routines should be part of anyone’s life regardless of age.
Routines provide a sense of security and help develop self-discipline. Human beings are afraid of many things, but the unknown, death and public speaking take the cake.
Children’s fear of the unknown includes everything from a new vegetable with a suspicious taste to a major change in their life. Children face daily changes, which is an opportunity for growth, but it can also be quite stressful.
The importance of routine structure in constant changes
Routines provide security for the daily changes that they must experience. Children grow, their bodies change, their needs do too. Teachers, classmates… they come and go. They have to learn new skills and they need more and more changes and information as they grow.
Few children live in the same house throughout their childhood, most of them have to move from time to time to new neighborhoods and even new schools. Many of these changes are beyond the control of the child, but many others can control them. Routines will be a key point to find stability in your life.
A predictable routine allows them to feel safe
Children, like adults, can better handle change if they expect it and if it occurs in a context with familiar routines. A predictable routine will allow the child to feel secure and to develop a sense of mastery in control of their lives. As they strengthen this sense of mastery, they will be able to cope with the biggest changes as they get bigger: paying at a store, going camping with school, and so on.
Changes that are unpredictable – a parent’s divorce, a parent’s dismissal, a dying grandparent, etc. – can cause their sense of security to disappear and they start to feel anxious about it. believe that they are less capable of facing the adversities that life presents us.
There are changes beyond the control of children that cannot be avoided. It is for all this that we as parents must offer predictable routines to children on a daily basis so that they can keep up and learn little by little to handle big changes when they need it.
A well structured routine in the face of chaos
Routines, as I have mentioned in this article, help them feel safe and take on new challenges and development tasks, so they are reasons enough to create well-structured routines. But in addition to all this, structures and routines also have another very important role in children’s development . Structure and routines will teach children to constructively control themselves, to control the environment, and to be capable of self-regulation and good self-discipline.
Children who come from chaotic homes where belongings are not kept, where there are no rules or limits, do not learn that life is better if we organize it, where our minds are structured and things are organized. In homes where there is no time or space to do homework, children will never learn to sit down themselves in order to do a job well done.
Children who do not develop basic self-care routines will not be able to perform basic tasks such as preparing food to eat and may even have difficulty taking care of themselves as young adults. The structure allows us to internalize constructive habits that give us security today and skills for tomorrow.
