These are the three words this mom wishes all parents would remember. Now that a new school year is about to begin, please keep them in mind. Let your children be little, do not rush them through their childhood forcing them to meet milestones at ages they are not supposed to. Allow them to spend time just wondering about the world around them. Today we want to share this letter written by a mom whose son is now a grown-up. A great piece of advise!
3 Words I Wish All Parents Would Remember
by Michelle Rose Gilman
I know you think that all of your actions are in the best interest of your child, but I want to share some lessons learned in the hope that you stop doing some of those seemingly well-intentioned things. I was forced to stop. I hope you choose to. Please stop over-scheduling your child with tennis lessons, piano sessions, karate and the other activities that all your neighbors’ kids are doing. Kids need time to explore, create adventures, play and imagine. They are only little for a few, short years. Allow them to build their natural curiosity on their own schedule.
They have time.
Please stop preparing them for college starting in the sixth grade. In fact, please stop preparing them for college at all. If college is in their future, they will prepare themselves with their innate gifts and talents.They will not need you to write their college essays for them, and they will not need you to force them to volunteer, take AP classes, work a part-time job and take every honors class they can so they can have one hell of a college application and attend a prestigious university.
They have time.
Please stop inserting the story you have in your head about how your child should progress in life. Your children are not an extension of you. They each have their own road to travel complete with joyous celebration and heart-wrenching failure and loss. Don’t save them from failure. Allow them to travel independently and arrive into life perhaps a little scraped and beaten up, but with a smile on their face from the lessons learned and the wisdom that you cannot give them.
They have time.
Please stop rushing them into adult life. Allow them the beauty to linger awhile and enjoy the freedom of a fading childhood. They will soon have all the same issues, responsibilities and demands as we do. Why rush them into that?
They have time.
Lastly, we live in a world that is totally made up! Complete with arbitrary rules, timelines and age definitions. We live in a world that dictates to us when and how and where our kids must be at any given time. Who made up this world we live in? Where did these rules come from? Our children should be prepared for the most important of life’s lessons — to find happiness and love in a world riddled with uncertainty. And if we stop doing some of things I mentioned above, they have time to do just that.
You can find the complete letter here
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