I keep thinking of the image of a tightrope walker with a safety net below them.Your kids are on the tightrope, up high, navigating the distances between one development stage to another. You aren’t on the tightrope. You are the net holder.  When your kids are little, your net is really close to the tightrope because you are literally keeping your kid alive. But as your kid gets older, your net needs to drop lower and lower. Dropping your net can be scary. Especially when your teenager starts making very adult decisions and maybe those decisions aren’t so great and you are terrified they will fall off the tightrope and your entire body is tight with panic.   Falling is normal. The drop from the tightrope to the net is where all your kid’s learning happens. The falling is the learning. Not the walking across. Most of us do anything we can to prevent the fall. Watching your kid fall is HARD because it feels SCARY and RISKY.That’s why parents yell, threaten their kids, lecture, monologue on the worst-case-scenarios, give them extreme consequences, or bribe their kids not to mess up. Because we don’t want to feel the discomfort that comes when our kids make mistakes and “fall”.  It’s also why we rescue - which I talk a lot about in episode 20 called Why your kid doesn’t listen.Even as I talk about this I recognize just how absolutely difficult this can be. I’m living it right now. That push/pull of motherhood as I grapple with dropping my net. The conflict is between trusting my kids will be ok, while also desperately wanting to prevent them from experiencing any pain, discomfort, or failure.I choose trust. This is what you can take comfort in. You are down below; watching, waiting, holding your breath, trusting them, hoping they don’t fall but knowing it’s ok if they do…because you always have your net ready. Parenthood is one long journey of dropping your net and trusting your kid.I’m going to talk a little bit about what I mean when I say Trust.1st: Trust yourself. You are a mom and won’t ever stop being one. You’ve trained your brain and heart to pay attention to your kid for years. You can trust that you will continue to show up for your kid. Help them solve problems.Think about things that you have solved in the past - when your kids were younger. For me, When kindergarten was an absolute disaster for Lincoln, I pulled him out and waited a year until he tried again.When traditional school environments weren’t working for him, we found an alternative school that was a better fitWe signed up for things and kept doing them until they didn’t seem to fit. Knowing when to start and when to quit. When I needed parenting support, I found our family a parenting coach and got us help. I’ve survived stitches and broken bones. I’ve watched my kids struggle with bad grades, friendship hardships, emotional pain,I mean we all survived ZOOM school and months of quarantine!!! Recognize and honor your past self. All the intuition she has shown, and all the wisdom she has gained. Be grateful for her and what she’s done or overcome to get you here. Now, think about future you. You from 5 years from now. How will she look back on this time of your life? She’s going to think you’re amazing. She’s going to be proud of you. She’s going to be grateful. That’s what self-trust is about. Trusting past you for doing her best. Being kind to you in this moment. Trusting yourself that you are doing your best right now and that you can handle anything that comes your way. Trusting that you will always...