Just as you shouldn’t put preconceived expectations on your individualized child, you also shouldn’t operate under the assumption that your toddler needs, or deserves, to be 100 percent happy 100 percent of the time. Yes, we all want our kids to be happy, but sometimes, they’ll only be happy if you let them eat an entire bag of chocolate chips in the middle of a crosswalk without shoes on. Desperate times do call for desperate measures (hello, screen time on an airplane!), but on the whole, it’s important to remember that your job as a parent is to raise a good person . . . and sometimes you discover a child’s best, most impressive qualities when they’re bored, when they’re frustrated but learn to calm themselves down from a tantrum, or when they eventually move on from that thing they had to do that you wouldn’t let them do. In those moments, you learn that your child can actually be responsible for his or her own happiness, not you.
