As parents, most of us are deeply committed to raising our kids well. But no parent is perfect. We all mess up—probably more often than we’d like to admit. So here are 2 common parenting mistakes and how to avoid them. First, we refuse to let our children fail. To avoid this, we need to understand that removing the possibility of failure dilutes our child’s motivation to excel. Second, we make the mistake of projecting our own lives onto our children. We can avoid this by encouraging our kids to explore new activities and interests…and to develop their own unique gifts and talents. For more on huge mistakes parents can avoid, listen to the Family First podcast.