[user104658]

Originally Posted by lostalex

I think it's important to teach children to be independent and confident in themselves as quickly as possible. It's important for parents to push their children to learn for themselves, take risks, and be able to provide for themselves eventually, obviously it's also important for parents to also be supportive and to care for children while they are learning.

I believe it's always a good idea to build children's confidence by encouraging them to be as independent as possible. It just makes more sense that a child that is more capable of thinking for themselves and providing for themselves will be more successful.

I believe this long term breast feeding movement by some mothers is not helpful to a child's long term development. i believe it is a form of co-dependency, and co-dependency is a very toxic form of relationships.

Pushing independence onto a child before they are developmentally ready is actually hugely detrimental to long-term self esteem and confidence, believe it or not. Might seem counterintuitive but it's a pretty well established fact.

Pushing children out of their comfort zone before they are ready results in an abnormal anxiety response. Repeating this has the pavlovian effect of creating a link between "unfamiliar situations" and "fear and anxiety", with the net result eventually being an adult who becomes fearful and anxious when confronted with unfamiliar situations (and they probably won't even know why they feel that way).