Why Being Overly Cautious Prevents Success In Children

For your children to learn to play carefully it is important that you are vigilant and guide them in everything that is necessary until they learn (with your instructions) what can be dangerous and what is not. Children should be free to make some mistakes and above all to learn from them.

If you make them believe that nothing is safe, they will believe that the only way to exist and survive is to avoid risk by all possible means. While safety is important, avoiding risks can be detrimental to their development. If they just focus on staying safe and safe from harm, they could miss out on great development opportunities.

BEWARE OF OVERDOING IT

If you always tell your children to be careful, they will grow up thinking that they cannot participate in activities that involve any kind of risk, no matter how small. That is, they will only participate in those that are totally safe and risk-free, but the reality, society in general … is not safe. They need to learn to navigate insecurity in order to be safe. There is always a level of risk, regardless of the level of caution.

In order to evolve in life, you need to take risks. The opportunities that make people grow will always involve some risk, that is, that you will have to get out of the comfort zone to achieve goals. There is a possibility that getting out of the comfort zone is useless and may not work, but it is also possible that it does. Being too ‘cautious’ can cause you to miss out on opportunities . This can prevent them from being successful. Success never came to those who were very afraid to go after it.

If children grow up fearing the unknown, they will never take risks, they will be insecure and they will grow up with anxiety in the face of any circumstance that causes them uncertainty. They may be doomed to lead mediocre lives because they will never have the ambition to strive for greatness. Instead, they will spend their lives wishing they were more determined, regretting all the possibilities they never had.

GUIDE YOUR CHILDREN

The most important thing so that they can learn to live being cautious but at the same time to be decisive, is to guide them, let your children know what they should do to act with caution but do not cause them fear that they will fall. They need to learn to fall and then to get up, dust themselves off, and keep walking.

Whenever you remind your children to be careful, you will need to be specific in this notice. Explain the situation at hand, and what exactly they should be careful of. Don’t give them a vague and imperfect sense of danger. Tell them why the activity is dangerous, but do not limit their choices … And if they want to let them participate in the activity, if it does not pose too high a risk to their physical integrity. Let him discover his own limits and develop his own sense of caution.

Here we are going to indicate some phrases with a lot of meaning for children to learn to develop their own self-care:

1- Stay focused on what you are doing

2- Be careful with strangers or people who cause you discomfort and do not allow them to get too close to you

3- Check that all your friends are okay

4- Move slowly and be careful in (for example, the park, the sidewalk, etc.)

5- That rock seems very heavy, are you sure you can handle it?

6- Look around you before throwing the ball

7- Do you feel safe climbing that tree?

8- If you are running with a stick in your hand, do not go too fast or have people near you who can accidentally hurt them

9- Do not run on the edge of the pool

10- Give me your hand to cross the street

11- If you drop the ball or a toy on the road, notify a trusted adult to help you recover it

12- Be careful, do not slip

It is true that they will not always listen to you and these prompts will need to be said several times or even, your children will have to learn it for themselves. But at least they will have enough freedom to learn it well and thus, as they get older, they will be more successful in life.