What is the most important lesson you feel you need to teach your children?

Brilliant hub. I've always felt kids today are being too protected from the real world.

If my kids learn nothing else from me I hope they learn that life is an adventure. Adventures have good and bad elements. Wonderful discoveries will be made; mistake will be made. But if they face both the good and the bad with an open mind and a brave heart, then they will have made the most of their time here on Earth.

All of life's lessons are important. As a parent, teaching is a primary function, only second to showing love.

Perhaps, my lesson revolved around the wonderment of the world and all it had to appreciate. I tried to teach them to follow their hearts and never let fear hold them back. The only way to conquer fear is to confront it and overcome. Then, proudly you can boast (if you wish) honestly about your accomplishments as you constantly extend your comfort zones.

Great poem! Insightful and very thought provoking!

Oh what a timely hub for me, and beautifully expressed too!

My 15-year-old suffered huge disappointment today trying out for the high school tennis team. He was very very upset. It is so hard to watch your kid go through that. But they have to, and you have to let them. I totally agree with you. In the end, they learn to cope with these very difficult feelings themselves and that's the path to becoming a healthy well-adjusted adult. Thanks for reminding me of this important lesson, just when I needed it! Voted up and useful!

I agree ,teach your child failure,But teaching them to fail is ok.I taught mine to pick themselves up, dust themselves off,and get down to business! I loved the Princess and the pea. Had fun reading this because of that as well. Great Hub!

Splendid idea on parenting...i am with you on this...great story and pictures too...

What a beautiful way to answer the question, Beata! I couldn't agree more with your message about raising kids to learn on their own from mistakes and to figure things out about the world around them. I often find myself saying to my kids' grandparents when my kids have failed at a task and the grandparents rush in to save them, "Leave them alone. They need to LEARN."

Voted up, awesome and beautiful!

This is truly great advice. Children need to learn from their experiences... whether it is good or bad. My daughter had a school project due that she had procastinated on. Well, in the end I told her I wasn't going to do it so she could rush. Now she knows she shouldn't procastinate. Great advice and great way to tell it!

Hello, Beata,

I am not a parent but I can certainly identify with this post.

For one thing, it is an excellent piece because it is bursting at the seams with good-old-fashioned common sense.

Based on my observations, a great many parents and such entities as public-school systems and government are going way out of their way to "hide" children from many of life's unpleasant and negative realities.

We certainly do have to let our children know what 'real' life is like, otherwise it's a terrible shock when they leave school and the 'big bad world' is experienced at college, or work, or wherever. It's lovely to have a peaceful, sheltered childhood and innocence should not be spoiled too soon but it's equally important to have a balanced view of life. Children can be really cruel to each other so I think they learn much in the playground in primary school; it's the 'how to deal with it' that matters. Voted up etc.

Your hub makes a good point and is well expressed. About prizes, see the book by Kohn Punished by Rewards.

We need to quickly teach them the importance of a good college education which could lead to a good job which leads to a good income which leads to them getting out of the house =) But most importantly we should teach our kids early on to respect one another and to treat people the way they'd like to be treated.

Well done...And so true.

As a parent, I look back at a not so distant past. I under disciplined my own children; as a counter measure to the sometimes brutal disciplinary actions of my own parents. My children as adults, have suffered for lack of boundaries.I simply did not say 'no' often enough.

And yes, as I read what you wrote in your article of over acknowledgement; by often doting parents, I found myself fitting neatly in the category.

What I've learned from my own life, as well as that of my adult children, is that as parents, we must find a balance between reward, acknowledgement, and sometimes much needed boundaries and disciplines.

We have the power to enable our children to succeed in life by giving them the tools of reasonable acknowledgement and subsequent reward.

Or failure and disappointment through disillusionment, generated by the disappointment of impossibly high expectations.

Parenthood? A tough assignment with decades of positive,or negative results.

My Mother used to say "well life isn't fair you had better get used to it!" She is a wonderful strong woman nuturing and yet not over fussy, a sort of dust yourself off you'll be fine kind of approach while being watchful of your well being. Parents these days do seem to over protect and spoil their children which does not prepare them well for the world. There is a difficult middle ground to be found between supporting and bolstering children and their efforts while not producing brats that think they are better than everyone else. An adult that is unable to achieve in life due to lack of belief in themselves is as un helpful as one who is overly full of their own importants.

Children can not be shielded from everything this world has to throw at them. It is not possible. Best to teach them them compassion, which should not be to hard since it is a natural at an early age, the ability to share and work with others, logic and reasoning abilities, and basic decency.

Beata,

Wonderful response to the question--bravo! I am fascinated by the way in which you have a kind of dual answer developed here. There is one in the primary script of the hub, but another woven into the captions of your pictures. What an interesting idea.

To speak directly to your response, I am entirely in agreement. As a teacher, I abhor purposeless praise. Students in my classes are often shocked by the degree of honesty I have about how horrible their initial work is. I am not rude about it, but I am bluntly honest. By the time the class comes to a close, however, they can look back at how their work has improved and see real growth. This is the true source of self esteem. It does not come from being great--it comes from being a mess and then becoming great. They are very different things.

I only hope I can do the same for my own kids.

Thanks for taking the time to create this, and happy writing!

wayseeker

I have to agree with you --- it is important that we let our kids learn from their mistakes sometimes. They need to learn to think for themselves and not have someone else do their thinking for them. Some parents do everything for their kids that they don't really develop a mind of their own.

As parents we often tend to overprotect our children and miss the opportunity for them to learn from their mistakes. We cripple them in dealing with real problems as they grow older. I am so glad we have a heavenly Father that allows us to experience failure, harm, and disappointments so that we can build character and endurance. Voted up!

kmaskreations - yes, indeed! My children know first hand to listen for God's leading -- it has protected us many, many times.