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I’ve just written an eBook on GRIT that will be available to download from my website shop very soon, as I believe it is a very important part of helping to raise a child with confidence in their own ability.
A boy was playing outside and he found a caterpillar. He carefully picked it up and took it home to show his mum. He asked her if he could keep it, and she said he could if he took good care of it.
The little boy found a large jar and spent a long time putting in leaves for the caterpillar to eat, and a stick for it to climb on. Every day he attentively watched the caterpillar and brought it new leaves to eat.
One day the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting strangely.
The boy was worried so he called his mother who came and understood that the caterpillar was creating a cocoon. The boy’s mum explained to him how the caterpillar was going to go through a metamorphosis to become a butterfly.
The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out.
At first the boy was excited, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard to get out! It looked like it couldn’t break free! It looked desperate! It looked like it was making no progress!
The boy was so concerned he decided to help. He ran to get a pair of scissors, and then walked back (because he had learned not to run with scissors…). He snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged!
As the butterfly came out the boy was surprised. It had a swollen body and small, shrivelled wings.
He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, get bigger and expand to support the swollen body. He knew that in time the body would shrink and the butterfly’s wings would expand.
But neither happened!
The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shrivelled wings.
It never was able to fly…
As the boy tried to figure out what had gone wrong his mum took him to talk to a friend who was a science teacher. He learned that the butterfly was SUPPOSED to struggle.
In fact, the butterfly’s struggle to push its way through the tiny opening of the cocoon pushes the fluid out of its body and into its wings. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never, ever fly.
The boy’s good intentions hurt & damaged the butterfly.
As you go through your parenting journey, looking to raise happy, confident kids, keep in mind that struggling is an important part of any growth experience. In fact, it is the struggle that causes your children to develop their ability to fly.
As parents your gift to your kids is to help them build stronger wings…
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