Limits and boundaries..oh my!

Hello!

I was very excited about writing this weeks post. I was on a plane last weekend and had the wonderful opportunity to sit in front of a teenage-monster...for real! It brought to mind so many thoughts, I did have to stop myself from blurting out what I was thinking, as I am almost certain that my comments would have been inappropriate and unappreciated.

Let me tell you the story. This young person..probably around the lovely age of 13-15, and yes that is a trying age, was proceeding to badger her parents about the birthday party she wanted, the amount of money she expected them to spend and then corrected her parents every and any time they challenged her and finally told them basically to "SHUT UP!" Well.... WOW!!!

You know, this type of thing doesn't just happen..o.k. sometimes all children are monsters, maybe it is innate in their DNA to behave badly occasionally, but to behave like this teenager did is learned behavior. She has been allowed and even encouraged, I would argue, to behave badly.

One of the premises of having children is the title that comes with it...i.e. PARENT.
With that title comes job responsibilty..all jobs come with responsibilities. My father in law likes to say that if a job was fun it would be called fun and not be called work...all jobs are work! The major work of a parent once you sign onto the job, is to teach your children rules of behavior. I would argue that kids want you to make them behave and when you allow them to behave badly you do them a disservice. Kids will push and push until you show when and how and where to stop...allowing your child at any age to talk poorly to you, disrespect you and tell you to "SHUT UP" means you abdicated your number one job responsibility...BE THE PARENT!

Your kids will thank you, their teachers will thank you, and society will thank you!
You may even get a bonus...someone will take the time to compliment you on how wonderful your children are..what could be better than that??