#1 The Biggest Mistake Parents Make

Learn more about Chelsea at www.chelsea-whitaker.com and you can check our her online, on-demand course, The Parent’s Guide to Discovering Your Child’s Dream Job at: www.chelsea-whitaker.teachable.com

Chelsea:

Hey guys, it's Chelsea and my sister, Nicole, a successful business owner. Today we're talking about the biggest mistake parents make in encouraging their child's independence.

Nicole:

Before you get to that, Chelsea, I want to just cut in and say that your Facebook page, Chelsea Whitaker OTR/L: Discovering Your Child's Dream Job, is blowing up. It is maybe a month old and you've reached well over a thousand followers. And that's even before this podcast officially dropped, even before you've had the opportunity to share real content with your followers on Facebook (because we've been working so hard on the course), and even before this course, The Parent's Guide to Discovering Your Child's Dream Job is released.

Chelsea:

Wow.

Nicole:

And I know that that course is in its final production phases. All the filming is done. So it's being produced now and it's going to be an online on-demand course that parents can work through at their own pace on their own schedule available through your web website, chelsea-whitaker.com and teachable.com. I'll hand it back to you. What is the biggest mistake parents make?

Chelsea:

Nicole, the biggest mistake parents make in encouraging their child's independence is treating them like a child rather than an adult.

Nicole:

And what do you mean by that? What are some examples?

Chelsea:

The parents doing too much for their child, providing too many luxuries for them, having low expectations, or simply not treating their child with the respect you would have for another adult.

Nicole:

I can see how a lot of those things parents could do, and it might even come from a good place, right? Parents love their kids. They want the best for them. That's why they're doing so much for them or providing them with the nicest things. Even having low expectations for your kids, you don't want them to fail. So you set the expectations low, right? I can see why parents would do that. So before we get into examples of each of those, at what age do you think as an occupational therapist, parents need to start making a concerted effort to treat their child with more respect and more like an adult rather than a kid?