Do you remember when you came home from the hospital with your baby?
I do.
I was ecstatic…. and terrified.
“With great power comes great responsibility.” All I could feel was the weight of the responsibility.
Parenting comes down to three things:
Protect your child.
Provide for your child.
Prepare your child.
Protect your child.
We must protect our children physically:
- Literally: seatbelts, helmets, etc.
- Health-wise: help them eat healthy food, get their vitamins, etc.
- Protect them from being targets of abusers (physical, emotional, and sexual) to the best of our abilities.
- Protect them from their immaturity and young decision-making by setting rules and boundaries for where they can go and when.
We must protect our children emotionally:
- Help them develop social skills so they can have healthy relationships with others.
- Help them develop coping skills so they can have the best personal mental health possible.
Provide for your child.
We must provide them with physical needs:
- Housing
- Clothing
- Education
- Etc.
We must provide for their emotional needs:
- Loving home
- Supportive family life
- Positive friendships
- Character development
- Pro-social behavior
We must provide for their spiritual needs:
- Learning that there is a God who made them and loves them and has a mission for them.
- Learning the religious traditions of your family and how they can help them grow closer to God.
Prepare your child.
We must prepare them physically:
- Develop life-skills so that they can enter the adult world competent and independent.
- Develop decision-making skills so they can navigate the complexities of adult life.
- Develop character so they can be good and moral adults.
We must prepare them for independence:
- They need to know not only our final decisions, but also our decision-making process. They need to have opportunities to practice their own decision-making and see the consequences of their decisions.
Where to start?
Start at the end:
What kind of an adult do you want to send into the world?
