This week is our Spring break.  We are just sticking close to home this week, but we decided to take the kids skiing for the weekend.  It’s closing weekend here in North Carolina and the mountains are only a couple of hours away.  I have 2 boys and 1 daughter and they love being out there.  The boys tried skiing, but have really gotten into snowboarding.  My daughter is only 4 and she is on skis.  My husband usually goes out on the slopes with them.  I stay in the lodge, since my daughter is unpredictable on how long she stays out there…sometimes she will stay out 5 hours, while other days she will only stay 2.

Are YOU holding your child back?

This trip my boys did something that made me very nervous and that they had never done before.  My husband let them ride the ski lift by themselves.  They are only 7 and 9.   I was so nervous.   I watched them ride up.  The lift is probably only 250 yards (remember we’re in North Carolina).   And guess what?  They made it up fine.  They also rode down all by themselves, got back in line and continued to do this for hours.

While I was watching them it made me think, “I was holding them back”, my husband let them go and they succeeded.  If I had been out there, then I would have never let them do that.  What other things was I holding them back on?  Do they ask me to do things that I should let them do, but I say no because I’m nervous.  Are there things that I’m doing for them that they should be doing for themselves?

I decided right then that I was going to relax and let them do more things on their own.  You should have seen their faces when they came down that hill.  They were so proud of themselves.  There was no fear and they weren’t even thinking that they were going to get hurt or fail, I was the one thinking that.  So what if they fell getting off the chair lift.  How many people do that anyway?  If they mess up, they will learn to do it the right way.  I would have never let them go down the “big” hill.  They did though and did fine.  They fell and rolled around, but by the end of the day they figured it out on their own and accomplished the goal of going down without falling.  I am so proud of the hard work they put into that and not giving up.  I realized I was teaching them more by letting them try it and working it out themselves than by protecting them and saying no to them even trying!

I know my kids were proud of themselves that they accomplished that feat.  This will give them confidence in other areas of their life too.  I don’t want to teach my kids to be afraid to fail.  I want to teach them to try and if they fail, it’s okay, at least they tried!

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