When we do our children’s home assignment for them – we are not helping them.
When we buy them everything they ask for – we are not helping them.
When we allow them to stay out late on a school night just because all their friends’ parents let them, when we give them the solution to every problem on their way, when we try to be their friends instead of their parents, when we protect them from every failure or challenge – you guessed right – we are not helping them.
I’m sure that if I’ll ask you what you want your children to be like when they’re 25 years old, most of you would say: independent, responsible, with high self-esteem.
How can they be independent if we pack their school backpack for them when they’re 9 and can definitely do it themselves? Or when we clean up after them on a daily basis?
How can they grow to be responsible when we continuously remind them of every little thing they need to do or remember?
How can they learn to trust themselves to be able to work through challenges when we solve every little problem they have?
How can they learn to be financially responsible when they get everything they ask and want?
Parents, home is the safe place for them to learn and make mistakes, this is where they practice for the future.
We must let them try, fail, feel frustrated and trust them to try again and again until they succeed!
We are there to encourage them and support them, but from the sidelines, not on the field.