"Healthy Choices Grow Healthy Children"

Did you realize there is one job God has designed from which you should be fired one day in the future? That is the job of parenting. Henry Cloud in his book about boundaries with children reminds us that parenting is about the future and what we do today sets our children up for success or failure to launch.

Of course you remain a parent forever, but your role should change from year to year giving over more control to the child as they grow and develop. How else will they learn to be on their own and function as healthy adults? It begins now as you train independence and resilience with the little things at home like doing chores and the big things like sending them to school and allowing them that space to learn, make mistakes, and recover.

A baby begins to walk, but they fall down many times before they master the skill. So it is with children, they will mess up and we will be there to guide them to try, try again till pretty soon they have achieved the skill and this in turn builds their confidence and self-control.

So our choice as parents is to hover, rescue, and eliminate problems for them to face. Or, we can allow them to take risks, struggle a bit, and find resolution. What is the healthy choice?