The Goal of Growing Up

From LRH’s essay A Child’s Dignity and His Goals:

“Perhaps the single most important point for parents to follow is the importance of giving goals to a child. And the most important goal is that of growing up to be an adult.”

“A child should have responsibility and independence commensurate with his status as a child.  He should have things which are wholly his and about which he decides everything.  But under no circumstances should he be possessed automatically of as much right as an adult in the sphere of the home.  To give him this is to remove the main goal of his life:  growing up.” – L. Ron Hubbard

Above quote is from the Successfully Raising Children Course – a course anyone can take in any Scientology Church or Mission

It’s a quote I’ve tried to apply continually since first posting about it here.   A certain toy store has the tagline of “I don’t want to grow up”,  and whilst this may serve to sell more toys, it isn’t the best parenting direction.  Whilst it is a good goal to never want to grow up and be a stodgy old codger who doesn’t know how to have any fun, it’s also such a key goal for kids to have to continually be a little more grown up.

It’s also up to us as adults to make it a worthwhile-looking goal to WANT to grow up!  If we’re always complaining about how hard our life is, how terrible work is, how much we just can’t take it anymore and need a vacation, etc, how much is your kid going to want to grow up & be like you?

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