Teaching consequences

One of the hardest lessons that parents have to teach is about consequences. 

We spend a lot of time naturally shielding our kids from consequences- even without thinking about it. Replacing dropped ice creams, lost football boots, broken [insert relevant toy here]s. 

And then suddenly, they get to an age where we think they should feel the full weight of responsibility for the failure of something. And so instead of being the safety net, we let something fall and smash. And leave them in charge of the cleanup. 

Those days are tough. The kids don’t see it coming (even if it’s sign posted), it feels like a betrayal, crossed with a lesson, mash-up with schadenfreude and a whole lot of regret. 

And there’s no guarantee that they learn the lesson. They might just take the betrayal. 

You can also replace kids here with partners, employees, pets and to some degree ourselves. 

Learning the lesson of consequences may be necessary, but it’s rarely fun and it’s almost never done skilfully.