by Jan Shoop
Today’s reflection is on the word Nurture.
I was watching the news the other night and the newscaster was reporting on a study that stated that parents are being too protective of their children. The report said many parents don’t allow their children to fail. The implication was that the lack of “learning to fail” was causing children, as they became adults, to handle failure or rejection at work poorly.
I think, as parents, we should not be over-protective. To me nurturing a child and being over-protective are two completely different things. Nurturing and hovering are not synonyms. I know when my boys were young there were times when I wanted to protect them from falls, poor choices, cruel words and failure. I also knew they had to develop strength through their mistakes to become well-adjusted adults.
I found these two inspiring quotes and I think they reflect nurturing quite well:
“A child…must feel the flush of victory
and the heart-sinking of disappointment
before he takes with a will to the tasks distasteful to him...”
Helen Keller
“Loving a child doesn’t mean giving in to all his whims;
to love him is to bring out the best in him,
to teach him to love what is difficult.”
Quoted by Bruno Monsaingeon from the book
Mademoiselle: Conversations with Nadia Boulanger
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