Morning,
Oh, the joy of raising kids.
Yesterday, I was going over the math homework of one of my children, and discovered that said child had forgotten a basic concept when doing double-digit multiplication – always bump over the second row one to the left!
When I pointed this out to her, she said, Mom, it’s not my fault I forget!
Whammo! Stop the earth, I want to get off – I just kinda sorta sat there in bemusement and then calmly asked, okay then, whose fault is it?
Sheesh.
One of the most important things about parenting, I think, is teaching your child to assume responsibility for their own actions. I stopped yesterday’s math lesson long enough to fully explain just how it WAS her fault, she HAD the ownership, it’s NOT the end of the world, if difficulties exist, you make the effort eradicate them and move on. Wow, was that tiring…but the end result was, she completed the rest of the homework with no problems at all.
Argh. I’m really big about taking ownership these days. It’s so easy to blame others when things don’t go the way you want -academics, maintaining friendships, doing business, losing weight, building stamina, etc….but having the maturity and self-confidence to take ownership of one’s experiences can require a lot of practice and effort. The end results, however, make future challenges much easier to conquer.
“It’s not my fault.” HAH! Husband dear, it’s not my fault that I forgot to open the garage door prior to backing out the car! 
Enjoy,
Barbara
ps – some good math homework help includes: