What if the child who never gets it wrong… is the one we need to worry about?
I’ve another story to tell you about a boy whose homework is always done, well and on time. No stress. No drama. His parents are relieved, no more procrastination, melt downs or despair.
Everything looks good from the outside. He doesn’t get stuck anymore. And at first that sounds like success. Until you realise… he also doesn’t really try. Because he doesn’t need to. The AI answer is always there, ready, waiting.
And when that support isn’t there? He freezes.
Not because he’s not bright. He is. But because he hasn’t had to sit in that uncomfortable space of not knowing. That place where you think, and search, and struggle a bit… and eventually find your way through.
We say we want confident children. But confidence doesn’t come from getting everything right. It comes from getting things wrong. From feeling that wobble and realising you can survive it. Even learn from it.
I remember my own children at the kitchen table, staring into space, chewing pencils, sighing like the world was ending. And me thinking, just get on with it.
But that was the work. That blank, frustrating, uncomfortable space… that’s where thinking was forming.
And now, if we’re not careful, we’re filling that space for them. It looks like progress. It looks efficient. It even looks like success. But childhood isn’t meant to be efficient.
So maybe when our children are struggling, the question isn’t, how do I fix this?
It’s, what’s growing here that I don’t want to interrupt?
Thank you for pausing with me. Take care.
