Parenting: Muslim Police Force

As salaamu alaikum wa Rahmat Allah wa Barakatuh akhawaati,

How many of you are trying to remind your children to use the appropriate dua' for the different day-to-day activities? Well, here is an idea you might like to implement that is fun and educational.

Set up your own Muslim Police Force.

Make police badges for each Officer, for example:

Bism'Illah Officer
Al hamdul'Illah Officer
Bathroom Dua' Officer
Bedtime Dua' Officer
Post Adhaan Dua' Officer
Prayer Time Officer

Basically, choose whatever titles you want to have and need to teach/implement in your home. Then assign the badges to each family member for a week. Each person is in charge of reminding all the others to say the appropriate dua' at the specified time. So, Bism'Illah Officer will make sure everyone says it before eating, Bedtime Dua' Officer will go around ensuring everyone says their bedtime dua' before sleeping, etc. As the weeks go by and the officer's rotate roles, it will give everyone an opportunity to reinforce the daily dua' and also when things seem well established, new Officer roles can be created to add to the dua. The dua' for putting clothes on, the dua' for leaving the house, the dua' for the traveller, etc. Masha'Allah, the beauty of it is that for the younger ones, it can be a very simple one word thing and for the older ones something longer that they can teach others.

I never forget how the children would all ask each other, "Did YOU say bism'Illah?" before eating, LOL. It was like a police inquiry and it gave me this idea. You could even authorize them to issue tickets for offenders, LOL!