I like to think I am a recovering ‘snow plow’ parent. You’ve heard of helicopter parents that hover over their children, right? Well, snow plow parenting may be worse. Instead of just hovering, you remove all the obstacles for your kids in order for them not to experience disappointment. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mean to parent that way. I became aware of my snow plow tendencies after one of my kids didn’t make a sports team in elementary school. My instinct was to get extra lessons, a private coach and set up a schedule to have them ready for the following season. I had to pump the brakes and ask, “Is that even what my kids wants right now?” It turns out, NO. They were FINE not making the team and moved on to another activity in a day.
I think it’s hard for any parent to see their kids struggle, but the struggle is what builds resilience, right?
Let me be clear, there are times when you absolutely need to step in. But for the small stuff, I want my kids to experience life. As Jess Ekstrom says, I want them to have “safe falls.”
Setting An Example
This week on the podcast, we interviewed Jess Ekstrom to hear her story in entrepreneurship and her new book, Create Your Bright Ideas, for tweens and teens. A piece of advice I love from Jess is around “safe falls.” Jess is a new Mom and her daughter is learning to walk. She said that she knows she can give her daughter more room to explore and test her new found skill when she knows she can fall safely. Jess said that’s the same for kids and entrepreneurship. You have to let them try on their own, especially when they can fail safely.
Jess talked a lot about watching her Dad start a business in their upstairs bathroom (it was a big bathroom.) He left a good job to follow something he was passionate about. That helped give her the drive and confidence to follow in his entrepreneurial footsteps.
When I think of entrepreneurs, I think of people who have started large corporations or invented something. Sometimes I forget that Penn and I are entrepreneurs ourselves. We left the regular day-to-day to be our own bosses and our kids have a front row seat. Even though it’s scary to think about, I hope they follow their heart if they want to do the same.
Listen to our talk with Jess and let us know what you learned! Thanks for listening.
