A father decided to end the year by sharing five points he’s learned about raising kids, from raising a daughter to the ripe old age of 17.
Here’s the condensed and paraphrased version of what he’s learned. See how it jibes with your own experiences and opinions . . .
Expect success in your kids
Tell them they can do it. Whatever ‘it’ might be — learning French, running a marathon, creating their own original Pokemon cards. To quote Confucius: “To discourage a child from trying even foolish things is to force them to deal with limitations before they have learned how to find their own courage.”
“I know you couldn’t do it” should be outlawed, and any parent who says it should be locked up for child abuse.
Take a hike
A European study found that children who regularly walk each day with an adult are twice as likely to have higher reading scores than children who don’t. And do better in math as well. (Einstein didn’t do a lot of walking, but he loved being outdoors on a lake in a sailboat . . . )
Chores
This is an evil word to most children, but in the entire history of the world there has never been one single person who ever thanked their parents for forbidding them from taking out the garbage or shoveling snow off the sidewalk as a child.
Hygiene
Taking care of your hygiene as a child can sometimes seem like a chore and many children absolutely hate taking baths, brushing teeth, and doing lame things to stay smelling good. But take a look at these Invisalign before and after results as an example of how important it is to teaching these lessons early on in life.