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If you want to succeed at managing work and kids, you must learn to treat your kids as your partners in home building and not as your subordinates. Why? When you are out of your house, you are basically activating your position and you are asking your kids to take care of themselves. There is nothing wrong in asking this.
You are working for their welfare and for the betterment of your family. However, you must also understand that kids will learn to become more responsible. They will learn to take decisions. Some decisions may work outright while others may not. They may not be as experienced and as intelligent as you are.
However, when you are working and they are managing the house, they are beginning to start the process of reaching your level. In such a scenario, you should make sure that criticism is constructive at all times. If the intentions were right but the end results got messed up, you should try to establish the link as to what went wrong and how the kids can improve.
If you expect your kids to take care of the house and act as your representative in your absence but if you want them to make no mistakes, you are obviously demanding too much.
It is acceptable to have such high expectations from yourself when you are taking care of the house. However, to expect the same level of organization, planning and execution from your young children does not make sense.
If you trust them and if you give them the freedom to make mistakes, you will find that they are more than willing to learn very quickly. On the other hand, if you start criticizing their efforts, they will quickly turn defensive and behave as if they are doing a favor to you by helping you work for when you ought to be staying at home.
