In American culture, we often value comfort. While there is nothing wrong with removing unnecessary pain in life, some parents can take this exercise too far when raising their kids.
When parents try to remove all discomforts and nuisances from the lives of their children, they may end up learning that some discomforts—things like consequences or boundaries—are necessary for raising healthy kids. Sometimes short-term discomfort can lead to good in the long run.
How Discomforts and Nuisances Can Lead to Health In the Future
Why do so many mothers continue to choose natural childbirth and all the pain associated with it? In some cases, this is because this painful endeavor by the mother now, could lead to a more healthy child in the future. After children are born, they must experience certain amounts of pain in order to maintain health. For example, things like vaccine injections and root canals bring pain, but they also bring long-term health. Parents are not exposing their kids to this sort of pain because they want to hurt them; instead, they are doing it out of love.
Why does it seem like this willingness to allow kids to feel short-term discomfort for long-term good disappears when kids become teenagers? What happens to the chore assignments, the boundaries on digital technology, and the consequences for bad behavior? Just because kids are growing up does not mean they will not benefit from these things—even if they think of them as nuisances. Parents have to hang in there and be willing to feel—and let their children feel—some discomforts and nuisances now, because these things can lead to good and healthy things in the future.
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