halrunkel
What is the hallmark of a wise person? A wise person is curious, questioning, and humble. A wise person carefully considers options, gathers information, and makes good decisions. Above all else, a wise person then takes full responsibility for the outcomes of those decisions, no matter if those outcomes are good or bad.
Isn’t that the type of people we want our children to be?
Yes and no. We’d love for them to “be” better decision makers, but we are unwilling to let them “become” better decision makers. We shield them from learning how in the first place. The longer we do this to our kids, the more warped their worldviews become.
As parents, we should structure our homes so that our kids know the clear consequences of their behavior, and we need to respect our kids enough to get out of the way so that they can experience those consequences when the time comes.
Show your kids what wisdom is, no doubt. Talk to them about it, to be sure. But most importantly, give them a safe place to practice their wisdom by making decisions (both good and bad) – at home, with you.
“Fathers and mothers have lost the idea that the highest aspiration they might have for their children is for them to be wise… specialized competence and success are all that they can imagine.” (Allan Bloom)
Peace begins with a pause,
Hal
