Having an uncontrollable urge to get kids everything they “deserve” and make their childhood nothing short of perfect is a perfectly usual parenting instinct. However, the question that you, as parents, need to ask yourself is the long-term impact this can have on your kids. Fulfilling their every desire and shielding them from the imperfections of life and disappointments can leave them unprepared for reality and thus unhappy. To prevent this from happening to your child, focus on raising happy kids who’re aware of the realities and challenges of life.

Teach them to be grateful

When trying to figure out how to raise a happy child, start off by teaching them to be grateful for all that they have. Many teens worry too much about what they don’t have instead of realizing what they’re blessed with. This keeps them from feeling content and happy. Remember that being grateful is the key to happiness. Work on getting your kid to understand this.

Let them see the imperfections of life

Life is neither perfect, nor fair, and the sooner they realize this fact, the better off they’ll be. Even though it’s your responsibility to watch over them, raising them in a shielded environment can leave them with unrealistic expectations. When they finally do come across reality and are on their own, they’d be too shocked and confused to cope with it. They may also struggle to recover from the shock if they’ve never been taken a stroll down the dark side of life before.

Allow them to feel disappointed

No parent likes to see their child disappointed, let alone make them disappointed. If you’re trying to get your kid everything they ask for, letting them beat you in games, giving them false hopes, and trying to make their childhood too perfect to be sustainable, you’re preparing them for a life-time of hurt. With you raising the bar and maintaining a certain standard of happiness for them, happiness of lesser magnitude may have little to no effect on them. Their expectations would be grown permanently. To keep this from happening, refrain from caving in to their demands and let them experience and get over disappointments, be it a broken heart, a friend who’s let them down, a bad grade, etc.

A taste of reality

It’s tempting to keep the road to adulthood smooth for your young ones, but it’s not an ideal thing to do for their development. You’d want to make it rocky at times so that they may develop resilience and learn that they need to work hard to get something. Have them help with the household chores. Let them make decision and if these are bad, let them deal with the consequences on their own while being there to support them.

You will undoubtedly need to make some tough decisions while raising your kids to be happy. Just remember that becoming weak and succumbing to your temptation to create a thick between them and the reality of life will only make them weak and highly susceptible to depression.