One of the most important things we can do for our children is help them learn how to make good decisions so that they're prepared to go into the world and make their own decisions without our help. There are many benefits to starting early with letting children choose. Kohn goes over some of them in his book:
1. It helps develop the child's autonomy (Kohn, p. 168)
2. It helps them learn to make decisions rather than just follow directions or follow the herd (Kohn, p. 169).
3. It empowers them to deal constructively with disempowering situations (Kohn, p. 170)
Its important as a parent to help your children make decisions but to let them sort of take the reins in their decision making. When they're old enough, let them generate their own decisions and opinions and let up on your own parental control.
Our Heavenly Father does this for us by giving us our agency. We learn in the scriptures, "That every man may act in doctrine and principle pertaining to futurity, according to the moral agency which I have given unto him, that every man may be accountable for his own sins in the day of judgment" (Doctrine and Covenants 101:78). We have the ability to choose and we become responsible for our actions. This is something we also need to teach our children. We let them choose and become responsible for their choices.
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