🗣️📣Agency is a spectrum not a binary We do not have or not have agency

�️📣Agency is a spectrum not a binary

We do not have or not have agency.

We have degrees of agency, starting in infancy.

The ideal degree of agency depends on the challenges that we face. We should have enough agency to face whatever we are currently facing.

As our lives gain complexity and we take on more responsibility, our agency must rise to meet our needs. When it doesn’t, we run into problems we can’t solve.

It’s the parent’s job to cultivate the nascent seeds of a child’s agency by exposing the child to situations that test their agency and providing guidance in responding to those tests.

Parents who infantilize their children by hiding them from consequences, uncomfortable situations, and the need to make tough choices they prevent the natural development of agency.

The result is adult children, physically mature but mentally stunted.