by Charlie Brooks posted in Parenting

Beautiful weather and a calm lake on July 4th means lots of fun water activities. My family likes to go tubing, although the use of a pontoon boat instead of speedboat makes it a much slower (and safer) activity. Nevertheless, my son felt scared this year, so he quit early on.
A few adults in the boat tried to give him a pep talk, but to no avail. Fear had already replaced his initial excitement. People could tell him to have no fear, but he wanted nothing to do with it anymore.
His sister, on the other hand, seized the opportunity and jumped on. She received a chaperone, though unwillingly, as she voiced a preference to go it alone. While riding around the lake on an innertube, she belted out ?True Colors,? which has been stuck in her head thanks to the Trolls movie. In the end, my son didn't listen to the adults who told him not to be scared. However, he did take note of my daughter's enjoyment of her ride. After seeing how much fun she had, he decided to give it another go. In the end, he enjoyed it quite a bit.
For my part, I sat back and let my kids figure things out themselves. Normally, I try to push fears aside and encourage taking risks, but I?ve also learned that sitting back and letting things unfold sometimes works out. In this case, my son went from frightened to entertained in a few minutes.

I?ve wondered for quite a while when the right time to push a kid is and when it?s best to back off. I still don?t have the formul...