I Should Have Let My Son Fail Sooner and He Agrees

“The one thing I wish my mom had done was let me fail.”

Hearing those words from my son, a high school senior, was very jarring. He told me about a conversation with a friend’s moms. His friend’s younger brother was struggling with many of the same things my son had struggled with in early high school – mental health, connecting socially, performing below his academic capacity and being combative at home.

(I was afraid to let my son fail. Shutterstock Monkey Business Images)

I’m not su...