I parented the child I was, not the kids I had. Now I wonder if that was a mistake.
A mother reflects on her decision to enroll her children in a small, tight-knit school based on her own childhood anxieties rather than her children's needs. She now wonders if a larger school environment would have been more beneficial for them.
Why it matters
This highlights the common parenting pitfall of projecting one's own past experiences onto children, impacting their educational development.
The author, pictured with her husband, is now questioning the path she chose for her children. Courtesy of Kimberly Witt. I went to a small school in a small town where everyone knew each other. I thought my sons would benefit from a similar, close-knit environment like the one I had. Now that they're in college, I think a larger school might have suited them and their needs better. I graduated from high school in a class of 30 students in a town of fewer than 800 people. I finished school with many of the same kids I started kindergarten with. By graduation, I knew their parents' names, their childhood nicknames, their pet peeves, and the fastest way to annoy them. At that time, I was terrified of a big school experience .
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