\u201cMaking the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.\u201d<\/em> – Elizabeth Stone<\/p>\n

##<\/p>\n

The first time I read that quote I got goosebumps. I thought about when my son was little and the amount of time I spent worrying. Sometimes it was legitimate. Other times, even though I wasn’t particularly over-protective, it was that unnamed, irrational fear that shows up just because….<\/p>\n

I don’t really KNOW why it shows up. Maybe because we love our families SO much that we worry for their safety. Or maybe it’s because we worry about our own ability to respond well if something unforeseen was to happen.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

It takes guts to be a parent.<\/p>\n

If you’ve ever done something you thought couldn’t be done, then you KNOW the feeling of exhilaration and competence that comes along accomplishment. Guiding our kids through achieving more and more difficult tasks helps them learn that they can. “They can.”<\/p>\n

What is it they can do? Well, that’s between you and them. I just think it’s important that people learn that they can.<\/p>\n

Here’s one of my favorite posts about that. “Mom, I’m a Waterskier!”<\/a><\/p>\n

And a site where moms and people who love them go to change the world<\/a><\/p>\n

Focus on the future helps us take a deep breath and remember that it is important to teach our kids to accurately evaluate risk and take the steps needed to get where they want to go.<\/p>\n

Because they can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it love or fear of failure that leads us to be over-parent and over-protect our kids? Parents who are raising future adults use a different approach to teach children “they can.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[62,124,158,311,367,383,423,435,546],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-8227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting","tag-children","tag-e","tag-fear-of-failure","tag-love","tag-over-parenting","tag-parents","tag-protective","tag-raising-future-adults","tag-they-can"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8227"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreapatten.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=8227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}