Oh, the Damage We Parents Can Do…
It’s no secret that raising children is the most important and the most difficult job we have as parents. We all try to do our best based on how we were raised or by what we know to do. There are goals set in place. We want to protect them: make sure they are safe, make sure they have many fun and engaging learning opportunities, protect them from bullies, protect them from making poor choices, make sure they have a good work ethic, teach them the value of a dollar, teach them to have respectful manners and to be decent, good-hearted people. The list goes on and on.
With all these parental responsibilities, is it possible that we might be doing some of these things incorrectly -- maybe even doing our children a disservice that could cause issues down the road? For example, take the ‘helicopter parent’ who does his or her best to never let anything bad happen to their child. If nothing bad or challenging ever happens to children, like accidentally spilling milk or breaking a dish, how will children ever learn to make the proper decisions, or how to problem-solve when something does happen? Have children had the opportunity to build their own personal skills to do things for themselves? Or have we always made sure that everything was taken care of for them?
