Friday, June 15, 2012

Why Parents Should Not Start Bad Habits With Their kids


Parenting is not for the weak at heart. Parenting is one of the hardest jobs on the planet right now and it seems like it becomes harder and harder each and every day. Technology designed to interrupt your day by claiming to make things easier for you, is not helping either.
Many new parents and even parents with children at the lower elementary level do not wish to take any parenting advice from their parents or anyone over the age of 40. This often proves, in time to be a mistake. There is a reason older people offer their advice. Perhaps they see themselves in you by the way you are parenting. They may have learned the hard way by doing so and just want to save you the pain that they know you are about to feel. Some good advice might just be to think about their advice if only for a few minutes to see if it at all makes any sense to you.

A very important bit of parenting advice is to be careful what you start when raising your children. For example, the baby is crying, you are exhausted and you place her in your bed. Some people have been known to never purchase a crib, so this may be how they raise their child. Suppose you are not one of those people and you just want some quiet and rest. You find that the baby instantly falls off to sleep. It’s now 3 months later and you cannot get this baby back into her crib. She screams at the top of her lungs and rips your heart out at the same time. Now you’ve got a problem. Now you have to basically wean your child from your bed back into her crib. No easy task! So, what are you now wishing? You are wishing that you had never started this because the baby didn’t start this, you did. There are actually children that have gone to first grade and told others that they sleep in their parents bed. In all fairness, by this time in a child’s life, how can any of you really get the rest you so deserve? Now, the school is calling and your child is now being evaluated. The other children may have begun teasing your child by now, because children love to tease anyone that is the least bit different from them. Next thing you know, you are weaning your six year old from your bed in a manner so as not to cause a total breakdown with steps that include a sleeping bag on the floor of your bedroom that gradually moves them to their own room. Who wants to deal with all of that nonsense? Answer again is, don’t start it and you won’t have to deal with it.

There is always the child that gets a treat or a toy every single time they go to the store. Don’t do it. The child that has to have a special meal at dinner cooked just for them because they refuse to eat what you have cooked. A special meal would only be good for the child with health concerns not most children. Parents don’t want to upset the child by making them eat certain foods. If everyone in the house hates vegetable soup, do not make vegetable soup. However, normal meals the children will need to eat them. Lesson learned here is to be extremely careful what you start with your baby, child or teenager because you could find yourself still doing this in ten years way beyond any patience that you may have had for doing it in the very beginning.

3 comments:

  1. Bravo!! Wonderful points here! There is a ridiculous amount of parents who let their kids be the boss of them, all because they think or once thought it would be easier to give in. That's the number one way to raise a Class A spoiled brat!

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  2. It is harder as a single mom not to let them become like a little buddy, doing everything with you because you have no one else.

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  3. I would imagine that would be very true Krinsky! You are a strong woman for doing it by yourself! I admire you for it.

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