Jul 1, 2021
You will never
know what your child is capable of unless you allow them to
try! I know it's hard to watch your child struggle with
something, like opening lids on a jar, or tying their shoes, or
trying to pack and lug around their sports bag, but did you know
that when you constantly do things for your kids, you might be
"programming" them for "learned incompetence" or "learned
helplessness". This is in contrast to your child positively
learning that they can do things for themselves, they just need to
build their competence and confidence to do so, and you can help
them by letting them "struggle" a little bit. So as long as
they are at the age where it's appropriate for them to do that
task, such as tying their own shoes at 5, or carrying their own
baseball bag at 8, then you help them build their confidence and
skills to handle their own problems in the future, instead of being
in a state of perpetual helplessness. In this episode, I
unpack all of these points as we dive into the Rule of Thumb "Never
do for a child that which they can do for themselves".