Bringing up Independant Children

Mr MG is always telling me that I should encourage the children to do things for themselves ie to be independant. However, I'm lazy and impatient. I have no patience to sit around for hours showing them how to wear their shoes again and again and watching them do it ever so slowly and having them ask me countless questions while they are at it.

Mr MG has the patience to show them and thats because IMHO patience levels goes down according to the number of hours spent with the children. Lol! He is patient because he doesn't have to do things for them all day long, everyday.

So I usually end up doing things for them. Things get done much faster that way, whether its eating, wearing shoes, clothes or whatever. Mr MG always tells me that I should "invest for the future". "If you keep on doing things for them without showing them how to do it themselves, you will still be complaining about having to do things for them a few years from now", said he (the one who does not have to do it everyday).

So last night, in my bid to encourage independance (or rather the real reason was because I was lazy and had other things to do) I threw the pyjama trousers and my three year old boy and said "Nah (Here), wear it yourself." After a while he came running to see me with a pleased smile on his face and said "I did it!"

This morning to my amusement I found that he had worn his pyjama pants over his shorts! Hahaha. But yes, he did it anyway. Lol! The moral of the story: When encouraging independance, give specific or clear instructions or teach first. I had forgotten to tell him to remove his shorts first.

My boy and girl are so different. My boy is always telling me "I wanna do myself." and pushes me away whereas my girl is always telling me "Mummy, please do for me." And they both have the same mother. So sometimes I think independance is a little bit inborn. What do you think?