Let her spill milk.

I really love this sub for reminding me of ways to challenge my children and prepare them to be confident adults by becoming confident children now.My eldest isn’t much of an academic. She is turning six in a minute but she has limited interest in reading and writing. She is not an athlete either. The only person who can throw worse than her is me.She’s a thinker, a people watcher with an uncanny memory. She’s generous and sincere but she isn’t excellent at anything that others care about. I know she feels her “average-ness” a lot. She’s faster than her sister but she’s not fast, she know some things but her best friend knows more things etc… She’s a pragmatist perhaps to a fault.This week there were a few threads about staying home alone, walking to school, conversations about independence etc…It had me thinking; “This is what she’s good at.” She is good a setting up her own movie, she is good at making her own breakfast, she is good at getting dressed and packing her school snacks. She is good at cleaning up and getting herself into bed. She can be left for hours at a time while I work in the home office.She is also proud of these things. She likes to be in charge of herself.So this week I made a list of things I want her to know or be able to do alone by the end of the year. Toast bread, cut cheese, walk to the park/road safety, paddle the kayak, home fire drill, get “lost” in Grandma’s woods, get “lost” in a department store plus some others. Today was her third walk “alone”. I drove a block behind and she was wonderful at it. We will practice again tomorrow. I gave her money when we went to the mall and she bought her own lunch and drink and ate while I had my phone repaired a few kiosks over. She brought back change, disposed of her garbage and brought me half her cookie in case I was hungry. I am not sure she has ever felt this smart, this talented or this confident before. She has been glowing all day.Sometimes I feel like I am just child minding day in and day out without real goals. Not much changes anymore; it’s quicker, cleaner and “safer” for me to do a lot of things. In the past changes happened in leaps and bounds, “She crawls!” “She walks!” “She talks!” Now it is easy to accidentally hold back progress by not relinquishing the spatula. But, it turns out sometimes letting the kid pour their own milk changes everyone’s life for the better. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2ncL5DM