Raising Independent Children: The Challenges of Balancing Protection and Autonomy

As parents, we are hardwired to focus on our child’s wellbeing. Early on, this inclination serves our children well but, as they grow, if our relationship with them doesn’t evolve to make room for their emerging autonomy, we will keep them from developing the capacities they need to flourish in adulthood and navigate the increasingly complex world around them.

As scary as it is to step back and watch as our children take more ownership of their lives and choices, and as hard as it is to watch their inevitable missteps along the way, doing so is fundamental to their growth and development.

In this NEW podcast episode, Dr. Finlayson-Fife joins Tom Telford, Liza Telford, and Preston Niederhauser, hosts of the BrainSTOKE podcast, to give parents helpful guidance on how they can be loving, wise mentors as their children stumble through the sometimes turbulent transition into adulthood.

Listen to the full episode to learn more about:

*  Fostering your child’s capacity to self-author

*  Fitting in vs belonging 

*  Establishing guardrails for our kids and knowing when and how to adjust those guardrails

*  Overcoming resentment about our own lack of self-authoring