Failure can be a scary thing and it doesn’t sit well with many. But sometimes you have to be hard on people so they learn hard lessons early in their life and can cope with tough situations later on in their adulthood.

In my opinion, it is better to let a child touch the proverbial hot stove so they learn never to touch it again, whereas many parents today stand by the stove all day to make sure their children never have to feel the pain of having touched it.

When they get older, the child who touched the hot stove will be that much more prepared to strike out on their own and be independent.

Meanwhile, the child who never experienced it may expect that someone will always guide them through the maze of tough decisions they’ll have to make as an adult.

When I was in high school, I got in the habit of perpetually forgetting things at home. Since we lived close by, and my Dad didn’t go to work until I was at school, I got in the habit of calling him to have him bring to me, on his way to work, whatever it was I had forgotten.

He always did.

While I now appreciate that he was always there for me and willing to help, I’ve since also contemplated that if he had said no, I would have learned quickly to be more careful and thoughtful before I left for school in the morning. I would have experienced and learned from consequences.