Allowing your babies to become adults

It is a scary yet exciting feeling to see children grow from bawling babies to tottering toddlers, and, finally, adults. The first few years involve teaching them how to hold a spoon and fork, how to tie their shoelaces, how to comb their own hair, and how to hold the handlebars of a children’s bicycle. Teaching them how to ride the bicycle is another story altogether. Training wheels have to be installed. Riding is limited to the garage or the garden, biking on the street is strictly prohibited. But sooner or later your child will be riding on the street in front of the house, arms raised, yelling “Mum! Look no hands!”

I bet every mother who has seen her kid do that ran out of the front door, yelling for the kid to stop and to take care. Father surely chuckled, concern etched in his face. Parents cannot help but worry and be protective of their children. In their minds, they are wondering how long it will be till their children ask to learn how to drive a car, how to ask a girl out, or how to get over their first heartbreak. Matters of the heart are often more complicated than learning how to drive a car. And driving a car can solve matters of the heart. Asking a girl out is easier when he can pick her up at her house and bring her back home after the date. And what heartbreak cannot be solved by a road trip in the countryside?

However, driving a car and driving it safely are two very different things. Research suggests that teenage drivers are at a higher risk of getting involved in a car accident. Brake, a road safety charity organisation in the United Kingdom, reports that young male drivers are seven times more likely to crash than all-male drivers, more so between the hours of 2am and 5am. Young drivers are also more likely to seek thrills, drive under the influence or drive recklessly. Furthermore, young drivers are less likely to use a seatbelt at all times. Given these statistics, it is understandable that parents are hesitant to allow their kids to drive or get a driver’s licence. However, the ability to drive is an important step into adulthood. The best that parents can do is to steer their children in a direction where they can learn it from the best. One such provider of updated and comprehensive DSA-type tests to prepare any learner driver is Top Tests

Driving a car is just a preliminary step, though. Next, they will graduate from college, get a job, get married, buy a house, and form their own families. It is important for parents to support their children while growing up to prepare them better for more difficult decisions when they become adults. This includes praising and rewarding them for their efforts so as to build their self-esteem. Children with high self-esteem grow up to be responsible and confident adults. Protection can easily lead to overprotection, which can have counterproductive results. Some experts advise to let children experience dangerous things so they learn how to recognise and overcome the kind of obstacles they will encounter as adults. These experiences will benefit them in the long run and shape them into fully adapted adults.
 
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