Hold your children to high standards!

If you take nothing else away from anything you read here please read this section.  I will keep it very short and simple.  OUR CHILDREN WILL ACHIEVE THE STANDARDS THAT WE HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE TO.  Never underestimate what your child is capable of or treat them as though they are not accountable for their actions regardless of their age.  They will thrive to accomplish what we set forth for them and this will give them a sense of pride in themselves for a job well done.

Too often we as parents want to protect them; the worst line I have ever heard is a friend of ours lives her life to “never hear her daughter cry.”  Now I do not want to hear my daughter cry either, it is not something that I get pleasure out of, but the reality is, she needs to learn how to cope with life and disappointment as well as take pride in what she does.  If I place no guidelines for her she will not understand or appreciate the things that she does accomplish.

A story I once read talked about a group that prevented the towns they were in from ever feeling pain, hurt or suffering.  They thought they were doing a good thing for the people of the towns, but the reality was that they were not giving the towns anything to live for.

Set goals for yourself and your children constantly, praise them when they accomplish these tasks.  Find things that they are doing and enjoy doing to expand on, it really is not hard to do.  BUT make sure that this is something THEY want to do, not something that you wish you did.  Blocks, flash cards, dominoes, you name it; give them things to go for, getting a block higher, finding the right flash card, lining up the dominoes.  They WILL come to the standard that you set!