I love my kids, I just hate parenting
Last week, in the wake of President Trump’s 5000th example (“shithole”) of why he’s both the worst president of all time and one of the worst people on earth, I posted a few “political” posts on Facebook and Instagram.
Almost immediately, I got jumped on for violating a make-believe oath I never took about only using my accounts to provide an escape for strangers I’ll never meet.
Please allow me to not apologize.
My 7-year-old always wants more.
He wants more toys, even though he doesn’t play with half the ones he has. He wants more dessert, even when he can barely ask for it because his mouth is already full of dessert. He wants more time before bed, which he usually gets by tortuously extending the bedtime routine. All this demand for more makes me want less — less whining, less stress, less kids!
Of course, children aren’t the only ones who want more. Adults have the same obsession, especially parents.
One of the great lies that many parents tell themselves is that their kid is perfect.
You know how it is — they’re your little angel and can do no wrong! They’re the cutest baby in the world, and you’re pretty certain they started walking and talking before everyone else’s baby because they’re so smart! Bow down before the greatest child who has ever lived!
This delusion gets harder to maintain as your child gets older and the things they can — and do — do wrong start piling up. But there is a way to keep it alive…
One night in college, a friend summoned me to her room.
I’d been interested in her for some time – I wanted to be “more than friends” – but up to that point, things had remained chaste. It was late, we’d both been out separately, doing whatever it is we’d been doing, and when I got to her room, she was clearly drunk.
Twenty years later, I still remember how I felt that night.
This is why “NotAllMen” doesn’t matter…
Read more about “Not All Men” Is Meaningless and Counterproductive …
Disciplining your kids is hard.
It requires nuance. You can’t yell all the time, because it loses its effectiveness after a while. You can’t spank ever because you were spanked by your parents when it was acceptable and are now you are totally insane and probably in jail. You need to develop tricks. Time-outs, good cop/bad cop, the Parent Voice, etc.
Most of the time, getting your kids to behave boils down to two strategies: threats and bribes.