LOVING YOUR CHILD TO DEATH

We are witnessing a generation of children, adolescents, and young adults who are living in a pressure-cooker. High school students are led to believe that upon admission into college that they are ready for the rigor. Academically speaking, for the most part that’s accurate. Middle school students are having anxiety attacks due to already being behind academically. And yes, you guessed it, even Elementary School students are feeling to squeeze. As parents if we allow our kids to only be successful academically, we are setting them up for failure.

Certainly, we know the statistics on those will college degrees versus those without make more money in their lifetime. Realistically though, what will that matter if our young people aren’t alive? We are loving them to death but not allowing them to stumble and fall during adolescents. That’s when they’re still within the safety net of the home. If we are waiting until they go off to college to figure that out, we will see a sharp increase in college students not lasting more than 7 days on campus. Sadly, this is already a reality.

Another term for this current situation is “destructive perfectionism.” Our love for our young people has set them up to not be resilient. To see themselves as a failure, rather than failing an exam. The pressure is so high that we are seeing a sharp uptick in suicidality and self-harm as an almost normalized response to the pressures of daily life. If you are wanting to see your child grow up to be happy, healthy, and thriving, you need to stop loving them to death and allow them to figure out life on their own.