As others have said, I work with children & some of the parents I meet are so highly strung & nuts it's hilarious. My dad took this approach to parenting with me & my mum tried to impose her will on me but eventually it all straightened out, they let me make my mistakes & I learnt from them & moved on. My uncle on my dad's side was a nightmare with my cousins, he'd run around after them with a dustpan & brush, my aunt on my mum's side was totally the opposite. She rules her three daughters firmly but fairly & they're like her friends. Of course, children need authority at times but they don't need to be badgered every single second of every single day. You have to let them figure things out on their own.
When I worked in a school & got the joyful job of First Aid at lunchtimes I had tonnes of children coming up to me who'd bumped their head or fallen over & I told them they were fine & they just got on with it. There were the whiny few who wouldn't leave until I'd dabbed their wounds with wet cotton wool (what does that do, really?) & would moan & bitch about the whole thing when in reality there was nothing wrong. I find it hard not to laugh whenever a child does something funny that they shouldn't really be doing & sometimes when I'm telling them off I find myself wondering, Am I telling them not to do something because I don't want them to do it or because their parents/society wouldn't want them to do it? I have to remind myself that as long as they're not hurting themselves or anyone else it doesn't really matter if they want to draw over themselves with pen or make irritating noises... They're kids. That's what kids do.
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Date: 2009-10-09 12:03 pm (UTC)When I worked in a school & got the joyful job of First Aid at lunchtimes I had tonnes of children coming up to me who'd bumped their head or fallen over & I told them they were fine & they just got on with it. There were the whiny few who wouldn't leave until I'd dabbed their wounds with wet cotton wool (what does that do, really?) & would moan & bitch about the whole thing when in reality there was nothing wrong. I find it hard not to laugh whenever a child does something funny that they shouldn't really be doing & sometimes when I'm telling them off I find myself wondering, Am I telling them not to do something because I don't want them to do it or because their parents/society wouldn't want them to do it? I have to remind myself that as long as they're not hurting themselves or anyone else it doesn't really matter if they want to draw over themselves with pen or make irritating noises... They're kids. That's what kids do.