Alison Curtis: Challenging myself to step back and build resilience in my child

Joan's low resilience says a lot more about my lack of patience than it does about her abilities

In parenting my daughter Joan, I have always been a bit guilty of the attitude “it will just be easier if I do it.” As she has grown and her capabilities have too, I have been the one in many ways who has held her back.

When she got to an age she could easily make her own peanut butter sandwich, I often would just do it because it was “easier and less messy.” Only recently I have stopped insisting on having one round of brushing her teeth every other night to make sure that they were scrubbed clean. I am, however, still very much on hand to get the really nasty knots out of her hair.