I wrote a book titled Raising a Self-Reliant Child because of the way that I was raised by my parents, because of the way I want to raise my children, and because I want to help other parents raise successful children that turn into successful adults. I believe that raising a self-reliant child really starts from the moment you bring your child home from the hospital. One of the things you should be constantly thinking about in your parenting decisions is, is my child old enough to own this task themselves? So is my child old enough to sleep through the night? Is my child old enough to hold his own bottle? Can my child get dressed by himself? Can my child feed herself? And if you're constantly asking yourself that question as your child grows, little by little you'll be transferring responsibility for all those tasks from yourself onto your child. I think it's also really important to allow your child to problem solve on his or her own. So you don't want to always be problem solving for them, because they are always going to be relying on you to fix problems. I'd much rather have a child come to me and say, "my toy needs new batteries" than have a child come to me and say, "my toy is broken. Can you fix it?" By allowing your child to problem solve on his or her own, you give him the message that you trust he's going to be able to figure it out, and you give him the pride and the confidence and the feeling of I'm capable. And this will last a lifetime. You will have a child that will go off to college knowing how to problem solve, knowing how to conduct interactions between friends and teachers. You'll have a child that will know how to go on a job interview and succeed and convince the job interviewer why they're the right person for the job. You want to empower your child from the start, not solve their problems, and give them the confidence and the message that you believe in them and all that they can do.