You can do hard things

“I can’t dooooo iiiiiit!” she wailed as she pedaled her pink and white princess bike up the hill. “It’s toooo haaaaard!”

“It is hard,” I said, “but you can do hard things.”

She fussed the whole way up the hill, but she did make it. And when she got to the top, she was SO proud of herself. I read somewhere (I always have a hard time remembering exactly where I read something because I read so much!), that you should never tell kids “it’s not hard! That’s so easy.” I had never thought about the impact of those words until I read that article.

But if you think about it, it totally makes sense. If I told Lia that it was easy to ride up the hill, but she thought it was hard, what does that mean? Does that mean she’s a baby? Or that I don’t value her opinion? Maybe both.

Either way, she made it up the hill. Hopefully there will be less fussing next time around, but at least she knows that she can make it… even though it’s hard!

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.