Permissive parents: Curb your brats

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/07/05/granderson.bratty.kids/index.html?hpt=hp_p1

Very well written. Couldn't agree more.


I think most people understand that kids don't always behave perfectly. But the point made in the article is that parents can't just let it happen.

Absolutely. Great article. I read this about ten minutes after I had bagged up toys from my daughters bedroom floor that she had tossed during a tantrum and refused to pick up. I told her the toys were confiscated for three days, which of course caused another huge tantrum. Just as I was wondering if I had been too hard on her I read this article. No, I haven't. This is parenting. Not all of it is fun and games. Sometimes there has to be tough love.

Oh, I don't know... I found the article a bit too vague to be really useful. But of course, we've been in the US for 3 weeks now without either of our ayis; no school for our two kids [4 and 2]; they don't know any kids their age in the neighborhood; grandma just had an unexpected hip replacement so it's really just mama and papa on childcare duty 24/7; it's 42 degrees, so outdoor playgrounds are out; for the same reason, we don't want them in the pool all day; indoor playgrounds are thin on the ground and expensive or associated with fast food....


We took our kids to Target this afternoon and let them run down those wide air-conditioned aisles for an hour while we were doing some shopping. Sure, maybe it was a bit obnoxious, but kids do need some exercise. They didn't break anything; they didn't run headlong into anyone except their parents; they were kind of loud, but in a 5-meter radius not a 50-meter radius. I mean, what's the alternative? Letting them watch TV and play on the computer all day?

Oh, and btw, I do have the ability to make my kids behave by just saying their names; I actively encouraged them to run.