Over Potting
OVER-POTTING — Repotting a plant into a pot which is too large to allow successful establishment.
While a parent is experiencing constant growth and change in their children, it is sometimes difficult to gauge exactly what a child needs at a given moment. Because children, like plants, can be tender at times, we walk a fine line when learning how to best help our children to grow and thrive.
While we want our children to “stay our little boys and girls”, we at the same time want them to outgrow us. It is a delicate balancing act to find just the right environment in which our children can grow at the proper pace for him/her.
We do not really intend to stunt our children’s growth, keeping their roots bound. But at the same time, we must be careful not to “over pot” our children either. There are times we may want to rush our child, or even think s/he is ready for something, that we place them in a “container” a little too large to allow them to successfully establish themselves. We may see our toddler ready to potty train, when he isn’t quiet mature enough to successfully get through this stage. We may put our daughter on a bike too big for her, thinking she will “grow into it”, and she ends up unsuccessful in each attempt to learn to ride, that she eventually gives up. These are small examples, which show just how we as parents can at times “over pot” our kids. When talking about situations that they may not be ready to face, too sensitive to handle, or even too immature, we need to remind ourselves that there will be time to get to these stages, and we do not need to push our child into them before they are ready to successfully maneuver through them.
