A Timeline for Training

We have 18 years to teach our children the skills they’ll need to walk into their adult lives with confidence and enthusiasm. This means by the time our children turn 9 – they could, if given a chance, have mastered 50% of all the skills they require to lead healthy, satisfying, fun lives as adults.

There is a primal instinct in all of us to become independent as quickly as we can. It requires that we become self-sufficient and in order to become self-sufficient, we must be introduced to new skills, taught how to perform these skills and given time to practice them.

From the moment our children begin to walk, they are eager and willing to “learn more.” How many times have you heard a toddler declare – “I do. Me help.” This is a parent’s chance to seize the moment and the child’s enthusiasm and invite the child into the process of learning, practicing and mastering self-skills, social-skills, and life-skills.

A Timeline for Training teaches parents how to maximize a child’s interest in learning certain skills during certain times of their life.

• 0 – 9 years: The focus is on teaching self-skills and household-skills (you know – chores). The goal is to help your kiddo’s build confidence and develop healthy habits that will last a lifetime. Of course the other benefit is that you have more time to enjoy your kids because you aren’t doing things for them that they could do for themselves AND there is less fighting in the house because the kids are engaged in life.




• 10 – 15 years: The focus is on helping the kids master social skills. Yes, this is a necessary part of a child’s development. When parents understand this, they can better support this amazing, confusing, energized and creative time in a tweeners life. Because the kids were mastering self skills and developing healthy habits around house hold work, there is little or no interruption of the family routines. The kids continue to take care of their own needs and embrace the learning of social skills.




• 16 – 18 years: Suddenly, you have a young adult living in your home who realizes they are leaving home in just a few shorts years and they have some learnin’ still to do. Things like budgets and bank accounts, driving and drinking, dating and sex, college and roommates, apartments and utilities, insurance and doctors, grocery shopping and cooking. Whether a parent admits it or not their kids recognize that they are moving up and moving out in just a few short years. This is a chance for parents and kids to connect and deepen an already amazing relationship. And if you have been inviting the kids into their lives from the time they were 2 and trained and supported them in their march towards independence, you enter this time of transition with confidence, joy and pride.

A Timeline for Training provides a structure for: Inviting, Teaching, Supporting and Building on skills over time so that no one in the family feels overwhelmed, overlooked or overburdened. It is a system that will grow with each individual and with the family as a whole.

Check out the Parenting On Track™ program and imagine the possibilities!