Raising Successful Children
- Praising children’s talents and abilities seems to rattle their confidence. Tackling more difficult puzzles carries the risk of losing one’s status as “smart” and deprives kids of the thrill of choosing to work simply for its own sake, regardless of outcomes.
- The central task of growing up is to develop a sense of self that is autonomous, confident and generally in accord with reality.
- Hanging back and allowing children to make mistakes is one of the greatest challenges of parenting.
- To rush in too quickly, to shield them, to deprive them of those challenges is to deprive them of the tools they will need to handle the inevitable, difficult, challenging and sometimes devastating demands of life.
- If pushing, direction, motivation and reward always come from the outside, the child never has the opportunity to craft an inside.