You want your kids to be strong when they grow up. You want them to be independent. You don’t want them to just blindly follow instructions or fall for every confident, powerful person they come across.
The trouble is that right now, though, you just want them to listen.
This is a paradox we’ve talked about before. That many of the traits you know are essential in adulthood are quite difficult—if not obnoxious—in a child.
Being unique. Standing up for yourself. Asking questions. Thinking differently. Protecting your boundaries. Finding your own path.
Yet we can so easily find ourselves stamping these very virtues out in childhood because they look like defiance or because we don’t have time to indulge them. But how else are our kids supposed to learn to trust these tendencies in themselves? How can they know their instincts are good when we keep telling them they’re bad? How are they supposed to develop the confidence to be who they are…if the people they love and depend on are actively forcing them to suppress it?
Your job is not to raise an obedient child. Your job is to raise a child who becomes a strong, confident adult. Remember that. Then parent accordingly.