Confidence

Morning Meds; 10 30 22

Confidence is the result of repeated success.

When a toddler continually repeats the same action as dropping a shape through an appropriate opening or screwing a lid back on a container, he is cultivating confidence.

The fifteenth time a book is read is as pleasurable as the first because they know what is coming and they feel the joy of success.

I wonder how it affects them when they are told that something is a no, but at some later date it is a yes.

I am making no claims to child psychiatry skills, but I thought it was always interesting when my toddlers and grandchildren would reach out to touch some object they were not allowed to handle, and they would stop and look at me waiting for a response.

“No, you can’t touch that, it will break.” I’d say and they would smile and go about their business until it was time to practice parenting again.

I wonder if the smile was the touch of confidence they felt when they knew they knew the answer before they tested the outcome.

Cheryl and I have always put both choices on lets say the coffee table so there were touchable things, no one wants to live in a world of nothing but no.

I wonder how much disservice I/we have done to our children when our no doesn’t mean no.

Instead of confidence in their ability to assess a situation they are faced with confusion on what they thought they had learned.

Food for thought.