Question

Despite our best efforts as parents, we will always make mistakes in raising our children. It's inevitable. There are so many decisions to be made in any given day, week, month, or year. It's an inhuman task to make all of these decisions correctly. Who would even want to try for perfection? We shouldn't worry too much, though, because it is precisely our mistakes that teach our children the most about life. Life is full of mistakes, obstacles, and trouble. Shielding our children from these by striving for perfection in our own parenting does them no favors. Given this, a parent might be tempted to give up trying to make good decisions and simply let the chips fall where they may. Admittedly, that attitude is not without its benefits, but it goes too far in the other direction. Children are much more observant than we think, but often draw the wrong conclusions from what they observe. If we give up trying to make the right decisions, they might get the message that we don't care about their future. We can take comfort in this much: we teach our children even when we're not trying to. That doesn't mean we should stop trying to do our best, to make the right decisions whenever possible. It just means that we shouldn't beat ourselves up when we make mistakes. Either it won't matter because it's something small, or it just might build some character in our children, a commodity that will serve them well.

Which of these sentences from the passage most directly expresses the author's claim?

"We shouldn't worry too much, though, because it is precisely our mistakes that teach our children the most about life."

"If we give up trying to make the right decisions, they might get the message that we don't care about their future.”

"We can take comfort in this much: we teach our children even when we're not trying to."

"Shielding our children from [mistakes] by striving for perfection in our own parenting does them no favors."

Answer 1

"Shielding our children from [mistakes] by striving for perfection in our own parenting does them no favors."

Step-by-step explanation:

I just took the test and that is the correct answer.

Answer 2

"We shouldn't worry too much, though, because it is precisely our mistakes that teach our children the most about life."

Step-by-step explanation:

In this excerpt, the author is talking about how difficult it is for parents to make decisions and teach their children about what is right and what is wrong. Generally, parents try to be perfect and make the best decisions, the problem is that the parents of these children are human, and it is impossible for a human being to be perfect at all.

This has caused the concern of many parents. Because of this, the author wrote to state that parents need not worry so much, because mistakes will teach their children about life. The author wants people to understand that life is full of mistakes, it is normal. However, children must learn how to deal with the consequences of mistakes, which prepare them for adulthood and the problems they will face in the future.