Parenting 101
Jul 27th, 2007 by justsimplyholly
From my own experience as a parent I’ve learned many things. I’ve learned that there is no such thing as a perfect parent, we all make our mistakes! I’ve also learned that as much as I’d like to think my children are right, there are times that they aren’t. Above all I have learned that it is very important to listen to your parents “intuition”, because it is usually right.
Today’s news is filled with stories about children who have made decisions that have changed people’s lives forever. These stories involve children who have been raised in good homes as well has children that have not. What I take from stories like these is that it shows that no child is “exempt” from making a terrible mistake.
What I don’t understand is how a parent can be shown proof of a mistake their child has made and deny that it was their child who did it. Too many parents have the “Not my child” state of mind. They want to believe that they have done a good job of raising their children, and that their child is not capable of doing such a thing. What they don’t realize is that by thinking this way, they set their child up for failure.
Parenting is a full time job. We have to take the time to be a disciplinarian to our children, rather than trying to be their friend. We need to let them know that even though we support them, we still have to punish them when they’ve made a bad choice. And we need to tell them that even though we may not love what they are doing, we still love them. But above all we need to let our children know that we are here for them no matter what, and we need to make sure that we are there for them when they need us.
Too many children today are allowed to run the streets without adult supervision. Parents are too busy to take the time to know where there children are and what they are doing. If we want to keep our own children from being tonight’s news story we need to start taking the time to know what they are doing and who they are with.
If we know that information, then and ONLY then can we say “Not my child”!
