Your parents love you a lot.
That’s why, when you were growing up, they probably made a lot of decisions for you:
- What clothes you wore
- Which schools you attended
- What kind of sports and activities you participated in
- Which friends you hung out with
- Which toys you played with
- Which TV shows you watched
- What time you went to bed
As a kid, you naturally gave in to what your parents wanted you to do.
After all, they knew what was best for you.
(In this other article I wrote, I challenge the idea that parents want what’s best for their children. Most of the time, they only want what’s good.)
Feeling “stuck” when you’re young
I don’t doubt that parents have excellent intentions when they make choices on their children’s behalf.
But, very often, this is the message that gets communicated to their children:
“You’re too young to make a choice. You’re naïve and foolish, so I’ll make the choice for you.”
Many children grow up believing this message well into their late teens and early 20s. This is a problem.
