Sometimes parents and kids don’t exactly see eye-to-eye. Here are a few simple parenting wins I feel like I’ve made, but the small humans in my house may feel differently.
I’ve never bought any of my kids a treat from a vending machine. Those things are in every hockey arena, mall, and public place imaginable. Fourteen years of parenting and I have resisted. I did the math early on and realized that it would be a very smart move to avoid the vending machine treat habit.
All of my kids go to bed at 8:30pm, whether they are 4 or 14. They are more than welcome to read quietly or even read to each other. Occasionally, I do a quick bedtime book for the little ones at tuck-in, but it’s no half-hour-long affair I hear some parents get sucked into. My kids are a bit like Jerry Seinfeld, who once said, “You know what my bedtime story was? DARKNESS.”
I have never laid down in a child’s bed to help him or her fall asleep. There are several reasons for this one. I do a lot of solo parenting, so if I lie down with one child, what are the other five doing? Plus, I need kids who know how to get themselves to sleep without being their bedtime hostage. Finally, the risk of falling asleep in a child’s bed is too high. I need those few hours in the night with no kids, so I can work or regain some sanity. Lying down with a child would put those hours at risk. There is no time for unnecessary sleep!
A few years ago, one of my kids came home from school a little upset because some friends were laughing at the fact that she had never been for dinner to Swiss Chalet. No biggie—I took them to Swiss Chalet and they got to experience their delicious dipping sauce; however, to this day, they have never been to KFC. There was always a certain interest around this mysterious chicken restaurant. The KFC dinner requests only recently stopped when they heard a rumour at school that the initials stand for “Kids Fattening Centre.”
They’ll have plenty of time later to stuff their guts with KFC and stay up ‘til the wee hours of the morning, but for now, they’re on my watch. Have you made any little parenting calls that your kids don’t always agree with?
Check out this parenting advice from moms of four or more kids.
What do you think about Snow Plow Parenting—the new parenting label du jour?
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