What Causes Perfectionism?
The pressures children feel to be perfect may originate from extreme praise they hear from the adults in their environment. The pressures may also come from watching their parents model perfection-istic characteristics, or they may simply stem from their own continuously successful experiences, which they then feel they must live up to.
I make an effort to tell my kids that it's okay to not do well at something or even bomb at it. Some things are important, some aren't, and I try to teach them how to pick what's important and put their best effort into it.
Val
