Blog Challenge Day 2: Something You Feel Strongly About

(This is just a general rant that stems from my own experience as a child and on into adulthood, I'm not accusing anyone who reads this blog of actually parenting this way)

To parents of all ages with children of all ages:

If your child comes to you with an idea they have that they are excited about, don't immediately tell them everything that is wrong with it.

I think this is done as a misguided attempt to protect children from the harsh reality of failure. After all, if a kid knows what to expect they won't be surprised when, or if, things go wrong.

But, instead of protecting kids by preparing them for the worst, this tactic ends up producing unexpected consequences. I know because I have lived them and am still struggling with them.

First, it destroys confidence. Kids get the message that none of their ideas are good enough. Kids also get the message that you don't believe they're smart enough to see the pitfalls of their ideas or that they're smart enough to come up with solutions to those pitfalls.

Second, your kid will stop sharing their ideas with you. In fact, they will go out of their way to keep from telling you their ideas.
Wouldn't you rather your child was excited to share something with you?

Finally, whenever your child comes up with an idea, he or she might internalize your lesson and immediately begin coming up with everything that is wrong with their idea, completely deflating any enthusiasm and stopping most ideas before they get off the ground.

Parents should be their child's cheerleader and supporter, not their child's harshest critic. There's a whole world of harsh critics who can fulfill that role. Parents need to lay the foundation for confidence. Confidence is such a big key to everything in life and it is extremely difficult to fashion confidence from nothing, and it is so hard to believe in yourself when no one else ever has.

So please, please don't rain on your child's parade.