Courtesy of Bruce Berrien via Creative Commons license.
Finally – here is the information that you’ve been looking for. What are the keys to mistake-free parenting? If you’re like most parents, you probably feel like you have more parenting failures than successes.
I know that’s the case with me. As soon as it seems like I’m making progress, wham! One of my kids gets frustrated or angry with me. Or I get a call from the teacher. Or they do something that I’ve told them not to at least a hundred times before. More than I care to admit, I’ve looked for this information many times.
So here are the ten keys to mistake-free parenting, in no particular order.
Don’t get involved. This one should have been obvious to me. The less involved I am as a parent, the fewer chances I have to fail. If you define success as the absence of failures, then this is one simple approach to mistake-free parenting.
Ignore grades. Grades are kind of like a scorecard, and if you criticize or scrutinize a child’s grades then you might affect their little feelings. So that you don’t make this mistake, leave grades out of the discussion. It also takes a lot of effort to deal with school, so following this tip will also free up some time for you.
Buy them everything they want. This is the “Disneyland Dad” syndrome – a spoiled kid is a happy kid.
Rescue them from every situation. We just hate for our kids to deal with trouble and conflict. By defending them at every turn, we ensure that they won’t have to deal with issues – and the situation is handled the way we want.
Don’t worry about bedtimes or curfews. Your kids can just fall asleep when they’re exhausted.
Let them pick and choose their own friends. Our kids don’t want us to decide who can be their friends. After all, we don’t know these kids like they do. Give them the freedom and luxury to hang out with whoever they like.
Feed them anything anytime they want. After all, kids know when they’re hungry, right? Just like they know what is best for them. Let them choose and you don’t have to worry about making a mistake in your choice.
Allow them to express their individuality any way they like. Clothing, piercings, tattoos, music, and their social media outlets are just little expressions of who they are. Why should we as parents dictate otherwise?
Give them unlimited access to TV and the Internet. These media outlets seem to be the source of all entertainment. So just let your child take in as much of it as they can stand. Plus, this is a great babysitter.
Keep them happy at all costs. Nothing makes you feel more like a failure than when your kids are depressed, angry, or sad.
Obviously no parent would follow this advice. The secret is that there are no keys to mistake-free parenting, so quit looking. Any parent that takes their job seriously will make mistakes. When we do, we have to learn from them and grow. You only fail as a parent (or anything else for that matter) when you give up.
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