We make promises to others we wouldn't think of breaking: our spouses, friends, our business partners our coworkers. Yet, we have no problems breaking the promises we make to ourselves. "I won't waste time on useless sites", "I'll stop procrastinating", "I'll do better", "I won't lose my temper", "I won't drink anymore", the list goes on and on. We let ourselves break those promises, even the same ones over and over. How much longer will we let this go on? We wouldn't tolerate this behavior from others, yet we do it to ourselves. "Self-esteem is just the reputation that you have with yourself. You'll always know." - Naval Ravikant. No one else may not know but you always will. How many more promises are you going to keep breaking to yourself? Is this how you would treat your family and friends? Maybe this is the reason why you have doubts. You've encountered your own example of the many t...
As a parent we are here to protect the kids from harms they don't know about.
In order to "toughen" them up for the harsh world ahead, give them love and give them love and the give some more.
You can't punish your way to good behavior
We let them fall as needed but we need to be there to help them back up.
Most of the world is confusing to them, our job is to help them understand what is happening.
They only have a limited number of tools to deal with their difficult emotions. They go to their known tools, crying, arguing, whining. This is what they know.
We have to teach them better ways of dealing with how they feel because most of the time they don't understand what or how to deal with the problems they are confronted with.