Your Children Need to See You Fail

Humanity is best learned through sharing.

Photo by PNG Design on Unsplash

One of the biggest pieces of advice I give to my clients with children is teach your children to be human. The looks they give me range from confused to doubtful. Teach their children to be human? Duh. Isn’t that what they’re doing already? Every single day?

The problem is, though, that I notice a lot of them step into a very particular trap. In the process of trying to teach their children how to be human, they lose sight of their own humanity.

What am I talking about? I’m talking about the unique experience of strong and authoritative parenting. Parents, many of them with the best of intentions, projecting an iron-clad exterior, devoid of the tough emotions and ice-cold in its demand of respect, control, and perfection.

It’s an easy trap to fall into. After all, most of us were raised exactly that way. It’s a tightrope to walk. On one hand, you don’t want to expose your children to the horrors of the world, on the other hand they need to see you being human to be human themselves. Where’s the line? More importantly, how do you (as a parent) walk it?