Throughout the article, I also reflected on what we do here at SYC and how we support kids in doing hard things at an early age.  One of our long time SYCisms has been “You can do hard things.”  It’s true.  We want to empower them so that they can do hard things.  But as I was reading I wondered if the families we serve know WHY we want them to do the hard things?

And then I saw it.  Spelled out right in front of me in the article.

“Finding schools where our children are comfortable doing hard things-where they can get comfortable with being uncomfortable-is one of the most valuable gifts we can give them.  

Hard can be frustrating, but part of the challenge is to figure out strategies for persisting through those frustrations.  Hard should not mean emotionally or physically damaging.  But sometimes, it can mean tears.  Or moments of exhaustion.  Or screaming into a pillow……

Doing hard things leads to a feeling of accomplishment.  

Hard is an essential element to satisfaction, accomplishment, pride and growth.  These are keys to our children’s success in the adult world.”

At SYC we recognize we cannot remove all the uncomfortable feelings.  Sometimes there are hard things that we want to do and sometimes there are hard things that we need to do.  We strive to offer the tools and teach the skills to manage the uncomfortable.  We build relationships with each child so they have a support system to trust and rely on.  A literal crash pad is ready to absorb the potential fall from a climber. Tricky skills are broken down into doable parts.  Our job is to listen and to be a calm presence rather than to rescue them from the hard things. We know that on the other side of the hard thing is resilience and the pride that comes from doing hard things.