Helping Your Children Achieve their Dreams

     Watching TV the other day, I was impressed by a woman and her son as they related his battle with cancer. Her goal was just to get him to live.
     How much more we should be helping our children to not only live but begin to realize their dreams. We watch as they play with objects, watch certain TV shows, or read certain books. We notice their developing interest in science, math, music, or sports. We do not direct them but encourage them.
     We help them to never hold a grudge, to envy another’s clothes, friends, or home. We help them to know the world does not owe them anything; if they want something badly enough, they will work for it. They will be determined and persistent. They definitely cannot feel sorry for themselves.  They get up and go at it again.
     If it turns out to not be the right thing for them, they throw it away and go another direction when they have tried their best or found it impossible after many tries. If they have furnished time, effort and emotional energy into a lost cause, depression and mental illness can set in. It might just be time to give up and redirect their life goals to a more satisfying endeavor.
          “I used to wish my dreams would come true…maybe I should have specified that I meant the good ones.”