Let’s be honest: being a parent is the hardest thing I will ever do. But, hands down, one of the hardest individual parts of being a parent is letting my boys fail. They’re young (four and six), but they’re learning at least one new thing every single day. And they fail just as often.
When they first learned how to walk, they failed thousands of times.
When they first learned how to eat with silverware, more food fell back on the plate than went in their mouths.
When started learning how to write. Or read. Or play a game. Or any other of the millions of examples I could use.
We all fail as we learn. It’s how we learn. Sometimes the failure is minor and easy to forget. Sometimes it’s bigger and takes longer to move past. But the important piece is moving past it.
Learning how to pick yourself up, brush the failure off, and try again. As many times as it takes until you succeed.
Failure helps us become self-sufficient. It helps us learn how to problem solve and use our creativity. It helps us find an open window when the front door is locked.
Failure is a vital piece of growing up as a human being. It’s why I hold myself back from fixing every single issue that comes up for my kids. I try (not always successfully) to encourage them to try to find the solution themselves.
It would be so much easier to give them the answer. Or solve the problem for them. It would prevent frustration, tears, and emotional meltdowns (from kids and me alike). But, it wouldn’t help them at all. It would just delay the inevitable failure.
I let my boys fail to help them grow into the men they will be someday.
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