"Regardless of age, intelligence, or cultural background, if a [child grows up and learns] just one thing it will almost guarantee success. What is it? 'I am responsible for my own actions.' Once you accept ownership of your own actions and their consequences, you can work the rest of life out pretty well.
But if you come out of school and go out into life believing that there is always going to be someone out there to take care of things for you, to follow behind you and clean up your mess (your parents, nannies, the government, the church, the boss, the bank, the lawyers, and so on) it's bad news. Young people go off to college to learn how to manage a business when they can't even manage the aftermath of their own daily grooming. When they find themselves fouled up - scholastically, financially, socially, or emotionally - they don't know what to do, because someone has always looked after their needs before.
Forever picking up after kids or anyone else is the most character-weakening thing you can do, for it teaches them that they don't have to answer for their own behavior."
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