Creating a self-motivating child (Pt 2)

My mother always told her children that if we reached the age of 18 and could fend for ourselves she'd done her job. Not that my mother isn't still there for all of us, but she realized that once we had reached adulthood, she couldn't really tell us what to do or how to live our lives. She did her best to make us each self-reliant. Unfortunately, she didn't really know how to teach us how to be self-motivating. She did her best, but in the end, we each had to figure that out for ourselves.

So, I reached college age not ever knowing how to light a fire under my own butt. Suddenly, I was 400 miles from home and had to make the choice to either sink or swim. I sunk.

I don't want to see my own child flounder once she is out on her own. Like my mother, I will let her go at the age of 18, and I will always be here for her, but I can't be her flotation device any more than my mother was mine.

We raise our children to the best of our abilities, and with homeschooling, we go above and beyond what the average parent does by providing all of the parental aspects, as well as playing the role of teacher, principal, superintendent, etc. When they reach adulthood, the best we can hope for is that we've provided them with sufficient skills so they're able to swim away under their own power.

In the end, isn't that what parenting is all about?