It’s a dicey business, being someone’s prefrontal cortex by proxy. But resisting the impulse to be a child’s prefrontal cortex takes a great deal of restraint. It means allowing that child to make his or her own mistakes. Only through experience can a teenager—or anyone, really—learn the painful art of self-control.
But when do you step in vs allow learning lessons? Especially with vices below, such as drugs, porn, violence, other crimes, mistakes can be costly and perhaps have life-long effects.
