Are You Doing Too Much for Your Child? Serving vs Enabling

Are you doing too much for your child?

As parents, serving our children is part of loving them. But when does helping become enabling? When does meeting their needs become doing things they could—and should—learn to do for themselves?

In this episode of Early Childhood & the Bible, we wrap up our series on the 5 Love Languages for Children with the love language of Acts of Service. But this conversation goes far beyond the love language itself.

We'll explore the difference between serving your child and pleasing your child, why doing everything for your children can actually hinder their growth, and how parents can teach children to move from being served to serving others.
You'll also hear why taking care of yourself, your marriage, and your relationship with God isn't selfish—it's part of creating a healthy foundation from which you can serve your children well.

In this episode, we talk about:

• The difference between serving and people-pleasing
• How doing too much for your child can prevent independence
• Why children need to learn to serve themselves and eventually serve others
• How to serve your child without creating entitlement
• Why resentment can change the way children experience our acts of service
• How parents model servant leadership for their children
• Why children learn more from what we do than what we say
• Practical ways to teach children generosity, responsibility, and service

Most importantly, we'll look at Jesus as our model of servant leadership and consider what it looks like to model a life of willing, sacrificial service for our children.

This episode is for Christian parents who want to raise children who are not entitled to be served, but who learn to love God, care for others, and lead through service.

Resources: Need help understanding your child's behavior? Grab the free Understanding Your Child's Behavior guide. You can also find Speak Life: 30 Days of Speaking Life Over Your Child.