McDonalds can be good for you

Thanks for sharing this bags. A friend and I were recently discussing resilience and how we can encourage this in our children; this article gives lots of food for thought.

I guess that too much navel-gazing can be bad for us; and expecting to be sheltered from life's ills. A lesson that needs to be learned young I think. When my children used to say "It isn't fair", I used to tell them that life was not fair, and that they had to live around that, look on the bright side and think of others' needs as well as their own.

I do find that a lot of children seem to think that their demands are paramount and go into a decline if they are not met. When they are tiny this is appropriate as their needs are for love and nourishment; but as they get older they do need to grasp that life is full of hard knocks and to gain the skills to cope with these.

To be honest my older GC do not seem to have learned this lesson! I bite my tongue!

Oh! I thought this was going to be a thread about favourite eateries!

I recently walked into town with my 24 year old son who was wearing a thick jumper, but no coat. I asked if he thought he would be warm enough and when he said yes I accepted his answer and thought no more of it. A few days later he referred to that conversation and thanked me for not 'going on' about him not wearing a coat. He said that most parents he knows would have pestered their (adult) child about it and we discussed how often, in my son's opinion, adult children are 'protected' or are 'rescued' from the consequences of their bad choices by their parents. I told him that, as a parent, it is very hard to stand back and allow children to make mistakes, but (as he knows) I do think that's how children become resilient adults able to withstand life's difficulties, and also that bearing the consequences of poor choices (hopefully) helps them to learn to make good ones in the future.
I see some children turn into adults with an obvious sense of entitlement and whose behaviours indicate an expectation that other people (often their parents) will get them out of all sorts of difficulties, but who otherwise live very self-centred lives. I want my children to know that I'm always there for them, but as adults they need to find their own way in life. However hard it is for me to look on and see them struggle.
I have a great admiration for the author of the article who seems to bear more burdens than most people of her age, but has gained a sense of perspective on life that is incredibly thoughtful and mature.

Well said Olivia Legaspi!