I was on my Exodus90 call the other night and one of our members brought up something interesting

I believe my Exodus fraternity brother first heard this from Jordan Peterson, who may have gotten it from Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget...

Here it is:

When one of your kids falls down and scrapes their knee...

Or they bonk their head on a dining room table...

Or they fall out of bed and wake you up crying...

Or any other of the dozens of bumps and bruises they seem to accumulate over the course of a day...

Our normal default reaction is to say something like:

"It's ok, it will be ok, you'll be ok."

Or "Don't worry, I know you're hurt, I'm here."

Or "Don't cry, it's just a little bump."

These reactions aren't terrible (I can definitely think of worse reactions), but they range from either dismissing the kids' experience, or over-coddling them and teaching them that every little bump in life is a fiasco

Instead, here's what he recommends:

When your kid scrapes their elbow, don't dismiss it. But don't coddle them either. Instead try saying this:

"Good thing you're so tough."

I love this framing. Not only does it promote resilience and self assurance. But it changes the story our kids tell about themselves.

And old management trick I've used for years is "tell people they already have the traits you wan them to have."

And "good thing you're so tough" is a great example of that.

-Harrison

PS: Don't forget to sign up for our new kids' streaming platform Sherwood. Our kids deserve better than the over-stimulating, politicized garbage in the mainstream. That's what we're building with Sherwood.

And if you want to learn more about Exodus90 (which I highly recommend if you're a young man or dad interested in self-improvement, just click here.

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