Should parents try to keep their children away from every kind of pain and discomfort? After all, these things will only have a negative effect on them later, right?
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Well, the answer to these questions depends on if you are confusing mild discomforts with actual pain. Sometimes, discomfort is exactly what a child needs in order to avoid pain and harm later on in life.
How Many Parents Confuse Pain and Discomfort
Nobody wants their kids in pain—whether it’s physical, psychological, or otherwise. Avoiding pain is natural, but pain-avoidance to an extreme can get confused with mere discomfort-avoidance. I believe one reason our nation’s opiate abuse rate is epidemic is this very reason.
Pain is God’s alarm system for human beings. When we continually go out of our way to keep our kids pain-free or discomfort-free—particularly when either stems from the natural outworking of their actions—we rob them of learning and character-building opportunities. Basically, we turn them into snowflakes. Kids don’t need a pill for every hang-nail they acquire, and they don’t need counseling when they lose a game—or an election.
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