How Much Time Should You Invest in Fixing Your Child’s Weaknesses?
Parents are typically very aware of their child’s weaknesses. This is typically the result of 1 of 3 cases:
- their child shares the same weaknesses as the parent,
- the parent is strong in an area that their child is weak, or
- the child’s weaknesses are preventing them from reaching one or more goals.
In case #1, many parents tend to ignore their child’s weaknesses as their empathy allows them to relate. In case #2 and #3, parents tend to obsess over fixing the weaknesses as parents are often driven by the fear of their child missing out.
However, regardless of the case the best course of action for parents is to fit somewhere in between. Finding this balance in between ignoring a child’s weakness and obsessing over it is my focus today.
I believe there is a simple rule of thumb for knowing how much time you should invest in fixing your child’s weaknesses:
Spend as little time, energy, and emotion in areas of weakness as possible.
Why? Research shows that by and large, most people can’t turn weaknesses into strengths.
So as you find balance between ignoring your child’s weaknesses and obsessing over them, there is only one approach that’s guaranteed to be worth your while. Invest the minimum amount of time needed in managing the weakness so it doesn’t get in the way of goals.
If you find that this is too difficult, chances are you need to work on fixing the goals more than fixing the weaknesses.