As parents, we either raise kids who are dependent on us, or we raise kids who grow into confident and capable adults. It all comes down to helping them develop their mindsets, skill sets, and toolsets.
Parents of Gen Z and late Millennial children have real concerns about how to launch their kids into adulthood and whether they’ll be ready.
Parenting experts and bestselling authors, Jonathan and Erica Catherman share practical ways to prepare your kids for life on their own in their new book, Raising Them Ready: Practical Ways to Prepare Your Kids for Life on Their Own.
"We live in a time and culture in which we're very busy. Our kids are going in five different directions, and so I think sometimes as parents we just end up doing everything because it's easier," Erica explains. "Sometimes parents can be indulgent and just do everything for their kids because they have low expectations and low demands, and then they just take care of everything so that the kid has no stumbling blocks or chances of failure."
In their new book, the Cathermans walk parents through the mindsets, skill sets, and toolsets required for children to mature into confident and capable adults with checklists and examples to assess how kids respond to the everyday demands of life.
"We're doing so much for kids these days because it's easier for them and it's easier for us," said Jonathan. "We want our kids to have this wonderful experience, but in a way, we're stealing from them the opportunity to build the resilience that they're going to need to succeed throughout life."
Jonathan says we need to set our kids up young. He says rather than focusing on the fear of failure, parents are encouraged to prepare both themselves and their children for the growth, change, and development of a purposeful transition from the dependency of childhood to the independence of adulthood.
The Cathermans have structured their book into three parts:
• Ready: The authors discuss what it means to grow up and become an adult and present an easy-to-understand Readiness Assessment parents can use to see how their kids view everyday demands of life as challenges to thrive or threats to survive.
• Set: The authors discuss the specific mindsets, skillsets, and toolsets that prepare kids to thrive in the years ahead and provide an age-and-ability appropriate Launch List of what real-world skills kids ages 2 to 22 should know how to do before flying solo.
• Go: Finally, they encourage caregivers to teach their kids how to become independent in phases by making a Release Plan that includes three stages of letting them go, a little at a time, over time.
The Cathermans say, with the tools and wisdom found in this essential parenting resource, parents will be able to stop worrying if their kids will make it on their own and start celebrating the phases and adventures of letting go as they mature into confident and capable young adults, ready to launch.
Today on Connections, the Cathermans share how we can start preparing our kids now, so they're independent when it's time for them to launch.