Parenting Advice: Let Your Kids Learn From Their Mistakes

Within a week, the patience of Pamela Hayford, the Southwest Florida Parent & Child Magazine Editor, was tested three times by her 14 year-old son. She later on made a realization on parenting: kids will never learn if parents will always save them if they commit mistakes.

The first was when she noticed her son's sneakers laying on the floor after he left for school wearing work boots. Because she knew that working boots do not make decent running shoes for his son's cross country after school, she went an extra mile to transport the sneakers to his son's school before heading to her work.

When she arrived in the school, she got a text from her son saying, "I also don't have my swim trunks." When she read the text, she shared on news-press that her head ejected from her skull and flipped around some times before returning to its place. Hayford would remind her son to fix all his school stuff the night before so that he won't forget anything when he gets to school the next day. However, his son won't do it.

Her last test of patience was when his son's gym clothes were left in their house and her son panicked because he needed the clothes for his first period which begins at 7:05 am. Because the school is 30-minute drive away from their house and she should be on her work on time, she decided not to deliver the clothes. In the end the teen boy recognized his mistake and turned out that he has shorts and t-shirt inside his bag for his after school cross country and used them in his gym class.

For parents, seeing their kids make mistakes is among the most infuriating and agonizing experience. In the case of Hayford, it's her son being forgetful and irresponsible. Though it's hard for her not to save her son in the last test, she knew that she did the right thing. At the end of the day she realized that if she kept saving her son whenever he committed mistakes, he will not learn how to rescue himself.