Parents naturally want their Mini Crewmates to succeed and may push, prod, bribe, demand, or even threaten the Mini Crewmates with punishment to get them to practice the tasks.

The fact is, being a Tiger Mom (or Dad) isn't likely to get your child further than giving the Mini Crewmates lots of support, and gently nudging if and when they need it.

Good parents know that it's important for Mini Crewmates to do things for themselves. Whether it's tasks or making friends, the best thing we can do as parents is get kids to a place where they can handle things on their own (WARNING: Must be any place other than electric).


It can sometimes be hard to tell how much we should help and how much we should let the Mini Crewmates figure something out on their own, but as a general rule, helping your Mini Crewmate with something is fine when you do it with the end goal of teaching them to eventually do it by themselves.


For example, it's not a good idea for parents to, say, do a Mini Crewmate's task for him or hover over a play date and dictate exactly what the Mini Crewmate will play and how those are definite examples of helicoptering, not helping. But if you show a Mini Crewmate how to work out a task or settle a problem with another Crewmate in a respectful way, you're giving your child good tools for the future.

Got a piece of juicy gossip you're dying to share? Want to tell off a Crewmate who is acting sus or yell at a Crewmate for suspecting you? While we can't always perfect, every good parent knows that Mini Crewmates are always learning from the examples we set.


If we want our Mini Crewmates to be kind, empathetic, and well-mannered as they grow up, we must try to be on our own best behavior and be respectful of others.

Can a parent occasionally lose his or her temper or yell? Absolutely—we are Crewmates, after all. But insulting or humiliating or belittling a Mini Crewmate is never, ever a good way to teach anything. Would you want to be treated that way?