On Friday Night I was listening to sports radio, and the show “The Sporting Life” was on ESPN radio. While I was listening there was a piece about coaches dealing with the current generation of athletes. It was a very interesting piece. There was one quote that stuck with me. They were interviewing a consultant who works with coaches to help better relate to this generation and she said speaking of the current generation “The path has been prepared for the child instead of the child being prepared for the path”
That is great insight, we are raising a generation that the path is catered to them and it shows. Not just in sports but in everything they are a part of including church, they expect things to be catered to them and even worse, most parents expect their child to be catered to as well. So I ask this question: should we be preparing the path for our kids, or preparing our kids for the path? I think we all know the answer, we don’t do our children any favors by constantly making their life easy, because we all know life isn’t always a cake walk. It is imperative that we start teaching our kids how to deal with life’s hardships, teaching them to admit they made a mistake and showing them how to deal with it when they do mess up. When we control every situation in child/teenagers life I believe we actually set them up for failure when they become adults.
If you are interested in listening to the piece on “The Sporting Life” download the 1-11-2013 podcast episode on iTunes, it is free. The piece starts at the 18:00 minute mark.
Standale Reformed Parents 
Matt, Great post. So true. Marc and I are always struggling with this. As a parent, it is so difficult to see your kids fail, be disappointed, get hurt, etc but it’s also such a joy when you see them get themselves back up, brush themselves off and thrive.
It is already hard for Jess and I to do this with our boys even though they are young. You can see they are about to fail and you would like to set it up so they don’t but you know by doing that you aren’t doing them any favors.