Are You Restricting Your Child's Leadership Skills?















Leaders are not born. They are groomed patiently in their formative years.

We moderns parents, however, might be hampering this in our enthusiasm to protect our child.

Here I share one of the many examples I often come across.

A parent’s anxiety on one of the many parents Whatsapp groups I am part of:

“Yesterday my child, who is in Grade 8, was told by his teacher that he cannot eat his lunch in the classroom. Apparently, it was against the school policy. He made him eat outside the classroom in areas with benches with shades. I was shocked when I heard this from my child. That’s so cruel. Eating out in the open with no aircon and all the bugs around. My child did not eat a single bite yesterday and came back cranky and hungry. It is absolutely not acceptable. Did you guys know about this policy?” 

The discussion that followed attacked the school and the teacher directly.

I was shocked to see the overprotectiveness of the parents for their ward. It's not about, whether it was the right policy or not. Today it's about a school policy, tomorrow it could be about a person, the next day it could be about a subject. There will always be situations where we are thrown out of our comfort zone.

When a child faces such issues, it’s a great opportunity to teach them. When we parents take things in our hands, we are missing out on golden opportunities to support them in practicing these essential leadership skills that would be expected of them in the future.

Some of the Executive Function Skills the above problem can be used to teach the child:

PROBLEM-SOLVING: What is my problem with this situation? I don’t want to eat out? I don’t like bugs? It is very hot?
CREATIVE THINKING: What can be a way out of this problem? What do others do? Any indoor areas designated for eating? 
GROWTH MINDSET: Let me try and eat out for some time and see how it is. Who knows I might like it. If I don’t like it, I can try something else.
Next time you are planning to intervene in a problem your child is facing, think again. Are you helping your child or are you stifling his/her leadership skills?

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