“The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.”
– Denis Waitley
In all parts of life, the things you do are just as important as the things you don’t do.
That goes for parenting as well.
A child’s success in life is undeniably linked to both their nature (genes) and their nurture (peers, parenting, etc.).
In so much as we’re responsible for the impact we have, we parents are responsible for raising our children in a way that gives them the best possible chance of success and happiness.
Margot Machol Bisnow, author of Raising an Entrepreneur, recently wrote an article for CNBC where she documents some of the top things she’s learned about raising successful children during her interviews…
“I interviewed 70 parents who raised highly successful adults about how they helped their children achieve their dreams.
Despite the diverse ethnic, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds, there were four things that the parents of these smart, driven and entrepreneurial individuals never did when their kids were young.”
So… what are the parenting no-no’s?
Here’s the gist:
They never treated their kid’s hobby as a waste of time: “Sports, video games, debating, music, birdwatching — every child of the parents I spoke to had a passion outside of the classroom. The parents never veered their kids away from the hobby because they knew it was keeping them mentally active.”
They never made all the choices for their kids: “It can be extremely tempting to constantly make decisions for your kids. After all, you’re the adult — you know your children better than anyone else does, and you don’t want them to suffer. But successful parents resist that temptation.”
They never prized money or high-paying degrees over happiness: “Someone who loves something enough and works hard at it will find a way to turn it into a living, even without a degree in that field. And they won’t be afraid to tackle an opportunity that won’t pay anything for a few years as they might be if they had to pay off high student debt every month.”
They never neglected financial literacy: “Although the parents I spoke to never pushed their kids towards pursuing a high-paying job, all of them made an effort to teach their kids about money in one form or another.”