Parents spend a lot of energy keeping failure out of their kid’s lives. Dr. Leman would argue that it is helpful for your kids to experience failure. Sound Crazy? Listen to hear Dr. Leman’s explanation.
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Here are some highlights from the podcast:
As parents, we often fear our kids having a failure because it is a reflection on us. We can guard, protect, and rescue them from making a mistake.
What we really ought to shoot for is excellence. Not perfection.
Here is the hard part. It is also the most important part. Keep your mouth shut and let them learn on their own. (Unless it is a harmful situation.)
If you are a person of faith, keep this in mind: train UP a child in the way he should go…
Training up implies positive encouragement, not put-downs and criticism. And, it is not the way you think they should go, but in the way God wants them to go. All of us are different, so are our kids.
When a parent raises their children by rescuing and guarding them from mistakes along the way, they end up with what I call a “boomerang” kid. That is a child who comes home after college, eats their food, assumes a disability, and doesn’t work up to his potential. He assumes that no job is good enough and becomes useless and irresponsible.
Let your kids make a few mistakes. They will grow from these experiences. Plus, you won’t be going so crazy trying to protect him at every turn!
Listen in to the podcast for a great role-play with a kid who wants to invest his uncle’s inheritance on a friend’s start-up business.
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