Tip of the Day

Give your kids some freedoms!

Yesterday my sister, Laura and her family were over swimming in my pool. My niece is 2 1/2 years old and she had a new bubble on yesterday. The new bubble does not give her as much support as the old one, so she actually has to swim a little in it. Laura and her husband, Eric, kept trying to get their daugther, Adrienne, into the pool. She would just sit on the ladder and whine that she did not want to come in.

I looked at Laura and said leave her a lone. Eric was busy with the baby, they have a 7 month old daughter Casey, so he had left Adrienne alone. I said she will come in when she is ready. So Laura stopped taking to her and what do you know. The next minute Adrienne was off the ladder and swimming.

You have to give kids freedoms whether they are 2 or 22. They need to know that they can do things on their own because you are not always going to be there to hold their hand. If they fall and need help getting back up you will be there for them, the need to fall first though.

So give them little freedoms every now and then and see how much they amaze you by the things that they can do. Children are not as fragile and unintelligent as we may think. They are very smart and learn things very easily.