What conclusions I’ve come to raising my kids is I DO have to let them make their own decisions but I need to TELL and SHOW them the consequences for doing said actions or inactions. I think with some certain societal views is that we need to constantly give our children positive reinforcement and that they can DO anything they want and always succeed/win. I believe that type of view is hurting kids internal thought process of finding who they are and what they are capable of. Real life dictates they will fail, a lot. I try and not sugarcoat Life to them. I state from my experiences the cause and effect and hope what I teach/taught them comes into play for making the right decisions.

This subject has been in my head a lot as of lately… owning your decision, your choices, your feelings.

It is hard to realize that when someone in your life does not reinforce a behavior, it does not make that behavior good or bad. We are so used to waiting for someone to acknowledge our actions that sometimes we do things for others instead of for ourselves.

Kids are great teachers in this sense, they make us see how they are affected by us and the environment and allow us to put things into new perspective. Something similar to what is postulated here, I experienced when I saw a kid blame everything but himself for various failures only to realize that he had been programmed that way.

Great post… lots to discern from it, and not just from a parent perspective.

Thanks for the link up. I’m glad you can relate to the post. I thought I knew a lot about parenting before I had kids, and I have discovered I knew almost nothing. I’m learning as I go and just trying to share it with others.

I do the same thing you do with you older daughter. I micromanage bedtime. But I’ve been telling my oldest son (six years old) that I do it because to do something great you have to do lots of little things well. So to have a great life it is the little things that matter most. We watched Tiger Woods win the U.S. Open and I told him that Tiger was great because he does all the little things perfectly and that gives him time to focus on the big things. His stance is right, his grip is right, etc. He had to get the little things perfect before the great things came. There are no shortcuts.

Thanks again,