Letting Kids Make Mistakes

Mistakes happen, right?

I think that one of the hardest challenges we face as parents is to watch our children make mistakes.  It’s only natural that we want to guide them down the right path, to set them up for success, to make the right choices.  But if we constantly shelter our children from the negative and the consequences that ensue, we are doing them a disservice.  We’re preventing them from learning to cope with failure, and to deal with one of life’s happenings.

I want them to make as many mistakes now as they can, when the consequences are lesser and I can guide them through remedying it.  When I can help them to step back, view their actions, their consequences, and help them to figure out what to do next time to avoid the same mistakes.