As one who works with the "entitled" high school generation, I fully agree. And so I re-posted.
But then I got to thinking...Will my friends and family see that and think, "Yeah right, Kim! You never say no to your kids!"?
See, when Connor first came along, we tried to be pretty heavy disciplinarians. We enacted time-outs at the young age of 12 months. We occasionally resorted to a swat or a spank. (Some might say we don't/didn't do that often enough, others say even once is too much. That's neither here nor there--I'm not here to debate the merits of spanking versus not spanking.) We tried to be strict parents...
But then, we'd encounter great aunts and grand-parents at family gatherings who would give us "the eye" or say things like "He's just a baby..." And then I would start to question what I was doing and why I was doing it. And by the time baby #2 arrived, I didn't have enough energy to stick to my guns anymore. And I certainly couldn't catch every little stunt that both of them pulled. (Especially Riley--man, she can be sneaky!) Some days we win the battle of discipline, and some days the kids wear us down. Those are the bad days. The days when we've given in.
So, here I am, almost 8 years into the abyss of parenthood. I still try to be strict, because I don't want my kids to become those kids. But with every passing day, I realize I have less and less control over the choices they make and who they become. I still try, believe me, but it's really hard.
(Notice how this post went from "we" to "I"...How did that happen?)
I guess the purpose of this post is to remind myself that my kids are still young enough to make an impression on. And they don't need everything, no matter how badly I want to give it to them (or how badly I don't want to listen to them whine).
On this one front, I need to win every battle if I'm going to win the war, which is raising responsible, grateful, reasonable children.
May the force be with me. And you.
No comments:
Post a Comment