The new school year brings a familiar challenge for many parents.
FOX’s Lisa Brady reports in this week’s FOX on Family:
As the new school year begins, schedules aren’t the only thing parents have to juggle. We also have to figure out how much involvement may be too much:
(Russo) “Parents are trying so hard to do all the right things by their kids, but meanwhile they’re not giving their kids the room to learn from their mistakes in order to then eventually grow up and be adaptive and independent adults.”
So-called helicopter parenting. Clinical therapist and author Adam Russo says there are opportunities to make a choice:
(Russo) “You can have kids, even as young as second or third grade, you know as a parent do you really need to be running the homework that they forgot to bring to school to them, rather than have them deal with the consequence?”
It can be hard to watch, though, when in some situations parents do need to step in. But Russo says the so-called soft skills matter more than you might think for future success:
(Russo) “It’s their ability to handle frustration, it’s to be adaptive, it’s to make quick decisions, it’s taking initiative.”
He urges parents to put as much value on those things as getting good grades.
With FOX on Family, I’m Lisa Brady.
