Unrealistic Expectations

More often we hear about parents limiting their child with negative words or put-downs. The child grows up feeling a failure and giving up. Depending on their age when the negative messages begin, they may believe every word sent their way and no amount of effort can change the message in their head that they are stupid, less than, etc. 

 But I have to tell you that the opposite can have a very similar effect. The parent who keeps encouraging their child to go way beyond their abilities, to achieve goals that are unrealistic, are setting their child up for failure. Not only does this result in the child feeling like a failure and wanting to give up, the child can't. The result of giving up would be disappointing the parent they look up to and love. That has to be very painful. 

I looked to the Internet and didn't find any useful information and thought I should write about it. I think the hard part would be telling the parent that setting up unrealistic expectations was doing more harm than good.

The parents cares, that is obvious. The parent thinks they are providing encouragement for their child to reach their true potential. The parent has not accepted the limitations of their child.... which is the sad part. Loving your child means wanting them to succeed at whatever is their chosen endeavor. 

 Loving your child means accepting them as they are, not as you want them to be. There's a fine line between encouragement and pushing a child to unrealistic expectations.