3. Don't Get Between Your Kids and the Consequences of Their Actions
When parents bulldoze obstacles out of their kids' paths, they run around cleaning up after them when they make mistakes. When you deliver Little Johnny's forgotten lunchbox to school so he doesn't get hungry, you prevent him from learning a crucial life lesson.
- Regardless of how much kids are sheltered, they will eventually learn how consequences work. For instance, when they don't feel like going to work for a couple days they won't earn any money. When they don't have money, they don't eat. And are you going to run their lunchbox to them when they're 35?
- One of our goals as parents should be to teach them about consequences in a controlled environment where the stakes are relatively low.
- Consequences will teach kids not to fear setbacks, but to use them to make better choices in the future.
