An article by guest writer Joanna Cake
“Sometimes being a good parent is knowing when not to parent. You have to step out of the way and let life happen to your kids.” ‘Norah Walker’ from the first series of ’Brothers and Sisters’
Oh, how this struck a chord with me. We are so busy trying to protect them and yet sometimes we have to let them make their own mistakes and then supporting them as they try to work their way back onto the straight and narrow. Learning as they go. It is so hard and yet so important.
As parents, we spend time sitting with them helping with their homework and generally interacting with them in a way that our own parents never would have. Are we, by definition, thereby stopping them from gaining the necessary tools for independence?
By continually protecting them from the ‘bad things in life’, are we making it harder for them to deal with the dangers of the outside world? Are we stopping them from learning how to deal with life’s rougher elements and unpleasantnesses?
I don’t have any of the answers. I’m just asking the questions?
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