Let Your Kids Be Kids

If you’re more concerned about your child’s homework than they are, or you want that big win or trophy more than they do, you might be projecting. Fox’s Lisa Brady reports in this week’s Fox on Family.

As parents, we want what’s best for our kids. But sometimes, we also want what we wanted as kids, or just to bask in their glory:

(Martin) “We have to be careful not to project what we felt we never accomplished onto them and then push them so hard with it.”

Licensed professional counselor and mother-of-three Rhonda Martin says it’s a common problem in sports and academics:

(Martin) “Maybe they had a goal of, you know, I wish I had extra after school hours of studying or I had a harder school to go to, and then they project that onto their child and then they’re child’s just like exhausted and worn out.”

Martin says it’s important to think about personality, not just talent, when choosing courses or activities:

(Martin) “Don’t just keep repeating what you’ve been doing, whether it’s a sport or a foreign language, or whatever math curriculum you’ve selected. Make sure that you tweak it each year to that child’s capacity.”

And she urges parents to make sure they don’t want something more than the child does.

With FOX on Family, I’m Lisa Brady.