Life calls for situations where there is no reward if there isn’t risk. In fact, there are more situations in life that operate by this standard than by anything else. If you want to start a business, you have to risk losing it all. If you want to fall in love, you have to risk getting your heart broken. If you want to have children, you have to risk the comfort and convenience of your current lifestyle to be able and take care of a tiny human that can’t do anything for themselves.
Success comes from being able to assess which situations are going to be worth the opportunity cost, or the amount of risk to reward. If you decide that having a child is on the list of must-haves for your life, you want to be able to do your best and teach them all that you can, and you ultimately want to see them rise to a place in life greater than what you’ve accomplished, that’s going to involve risk, but it will be filled with reward.
If you have a desire to teach your child to be adventurous, but you also worry about their safety, here are 3 ways to raise a kid with an adventurous spirit, but also with a certain level of common sense and precaution:
Let Them Learn From Mistakes
You can’t protect your child forever. If you stop your kid from touching the hot stove every time they reach for it, they’ll never learn from their mistake until they feel the burn. That’s not cruel, that’s how it is. If you teach your toddler to ride a bike but as they get older you never take off the training wheels or let go of the back of the bike, they’ll never learn to ride on their own and face the open road.
Let your child learn from their mistakes. Encourage curiosity and monitor what kind of dangers you’ll hold them back from. The sooner they learn how to judge a situation and whether it’s worth it to take a risk, the more successful they’ll be.
Don’t Be So Quick to Say No
This goes along with what was stated above, but if you want to encourage an adventurous spirit in your child, don’t be so quick to say no. It’s about your child learning it’s okay to try new things. They’ll learn from their mistakes. Of course, you will have to guard them against serious dangers, but if it’s something little that won’t have a life or death affect, let them try. If you can curb your desire to protect them from every little thing, you’ll be able to foster a spirit of curiosity and wisdom.
