A Better Way

There’s a familiar saying, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day.  Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.”   I have my own version of that wisdom: Fill out your child’s application and it’s mailed in long before the deadline. Watch and answer questions while your child fills out the form, and he’ll learn to do it himself.

One of the hardest things for me to do, as a parent, is to sit back and watch my kids struggle with something I know I could handle in quick order. But that’s exactly why they don’t know how to operate all our household appliances or shop tools. (They HAVE known how to work the washer and dryer for years, thank goodness.)

It’s especially tough when it feels like their future rests on getting forms and applications completed accurately and submitted on time. But by the time they are heading off to college, it’s probably time to choose not the easiest way, but the better way.

Filed under Responsibilty, independence | Comment (0)