Wellbeing @ MPS

Making beds

Win the morning, win the day.

It may be an odd thing but making your bed as soon as you get out of it is one of the best ways to teach children the power of routine and the value of productivity. Making your bed is well known to be a golden, keystone morning habit that can have astonishingly positive and lasting effects on the rest of the day, by establishing a mindset of confidence, competence and capability.

Why should children make their own bed?

• Children - from 3 years old - are capable of listening and obeying a request like this from parents. They are hard wired to want to please us, and following the request will reinforce, and acknowledge that you have expectations. It is about teaching respect.
• It teaches the value of ‘orderliness’. Environments and surroundings are important to mindsets. There is a tranquillity that comes from orderliness- an ease of being sure that things have a place and order in our lives. And a tidy and uncluttered room will aid calm sleep routines.
• If children make their beds every morning, they will have accomplished the first job of the day, which will unleash a chain reaction of other habits throughout their day. It gives children a sense of pride and reinforces the fact that it’s the little things in life that matter. 
• Making your bed every morning teaches discipline. Discipline teaches them not to give up on things, even if it is hard and a struggle at first. While it's challenging to learn the value of discipline, the sense of satisfaction and all that comes with it has far more worth than whatever effort was required to get there. When a child develops the habit of discipline from an early age, it will help them to make the right choices in life, choices that will bring success and satisfaction.
• Even though children will invariably find making their bed neatly tricky at the start- it requires diligence. Even young children can start by pulling up their blankets/doonas and straightening out their pillows. They can build up to doing it properly- learning how to do hospital corners and making it look straight and tidy.  Avoid the temptation to ‘re-make’ the bed for them and tidy it up- they will learn to take pride in it over time and develop diligence. Making their beds for them removes the opportunity for them to master a new skill and have this sense of accomplishment.
• If by chance they’ve had a bad day, they’ll come home to a bed that they made. And a made bed encourages them to believe tomorrow will be a better day.  😊