I'm on Chapter 5 of this fantastic book and it just keeps getting better.

As I come across the pearls, I'm writing these quick blogs to share what I'm learning.  I highly recommend you check out the other posts!  Here's today's set of goodies quoted directly from the book Building Resilience in Children and Teens: Giving Kids Roots and Wings.

To foster their competence, we need to recognize when and how our involvement helps or hurts.  As situations arise throughout childhood and adolescence, we need to understand when to do the following 3 things:

1. Get out of the way.
2. Join in and help a child build new avenues of competence.
3. Guide a child to think through situations wisely and safely.

Getting out of the way is a tough challenge ... But we have to remind ourselves that when we just let them figure things out for themselves, we communicate this powerful message: "I think you are competent."