Learning to Fly

A Healthy Dose of Neglect

Many years ago some writer – it might have been Norman Vincent Peale – said, "Every child needs a good, healthy dose of neglect." I can hear the horrors from parents of small children even as I write this! How could anyone say such a thing?

And yet this thought needs to be explored a bit. Clearly no wise parent will allow a two-year old to play unsupervised in Daddy’s tool shed or to explore his environment with a nail file in a room full of electrical outlets.

But having said that, as children mature they need to be cut loose from Mom & Dad’s all-seeing eyes, allowing them to make mistakes or better yet develop problem-solving skills with their playmates. If Mom and Dad are there to ride to the rescue every time a little difficulty arises, the child will remain a child even into adulthood. Dependency will be a habit and adulthood delayed.

The same can be said for government, people need to be left alone to solve their problems or dependency will be a habit and we will have a nation of children.

Oops.

He goes on:

Maybe that's what Jesus meant when he told his disciples, "It is expedient for you that I go away” (John 16:7), and, “He that believes in me, the works that I do he shall do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto the Father" (John 14:12).

Maybe we can paraphrase it as: "It's best I leave. I'll send you some help, but you’ll have to learn how to step out of your comfort zones."