Incog - I knew you were kidding about the prison thing!!! And you did answer my question - thanks. Dottie, I'll try to restrain myself from going crazy with the commands so I don't end up in prison myself - LOL!!! I totally agree that people on this board are going to take care of problems with their kids. I wasn't even thinking about that - you know I think the people here are amazing and I am in awe of all of you!!!

Incog, your comment actually made me think about the people that have come and gone in my life and what they have made of themselves. I recently had my 20 year reunion and it was very interesting to see how some of the people you would have expected to change the world wound up doing basically nothing while others that weren't necessarily considered to be ones "most likely to succeed", really far out-shown lots of other people with their chosen careers - doctors and lawyers, etc. But success is determined in far different ways. Most people wouldn't consider me to be successful as I don't have a high powered job but I am doing what I love working part time and spending lots of time with my kids. So to me, I am successful. I know everyone defines success in different ways and that can't be put in a box either. Maybe success is being happy and content with where you are and what you're doing???

Kriston said
Quote
If you never fail, it becomes hard to face failure and try again, hard to know what acceptable/necessary risk looks like, hard to make even a small mistake without feeling like you've lost your identity. That's not healthy.
I totally agree with this. I think experiencing failure doesn't have to be in an academic setting. It can be in sports or just losing a chess game to your parent. Kids can learn how to make those mistakes and then move on without it crushing their self esteem so that they are afraid to ever make a mistake.

Anyway, I definitely agree that people can't be boxed in and that personality does probably play a large part in how much you are willing to risk in order to try to succeed. I enjoy these kinds of musings and I appreciate that the people on this board with go there with me! I don't have anyone much in my non-internet life that I can talk about these kinds of things with! :-)