Listen now | I understand the desire to give your children a better life than you had, especially if you grew up poor, suffered, or endured trauma. But there is a difference between giving your child a good life and an easy life.
I sometimes wonder if we confuse loving our children with protecting them from every difficulty.
The problem is that resilience is built through experience. Children who never have to struggle rarely discover what they are capable of handling.
It is hard to watch your children go through hard things.
But it is even harder to watch an adult who never learned they could survive them.
Absolutely. It hurts to watch them deal with struggle and pain, but they'll never grow without that independence.
Yes.
The hard part of parenting is knowing when helping becomes preventing growth.
Sometimes the struggle is doing important work, even when we wish we could take it away.
I sometimes wonder if we confuse loving our children with protecting them from every difficulty.
The problem is that resilience is built through experience. Children who never have to struggle rarely discover what they are capable of handling.
It is hard to watch your children go through hard things.
But it is even harder to watch an adult who never learned they could survive them.
Absolutely. It hurts to watch them deal with struggle and pain, but they'll never grow without that independence.
Yes.
The hard part of parenting is knowing when helping becomes preventing growth.
Sometimes the struggle is doing important work, even when we wish we could take it away.