I’ve never been a fan of children who whine and cry to get their way. It’s all too common to see children (of all ages) throwing temper tantrums when they don’t get what they want. The parents aren’t much better – encouraging this terrible behavior by giving these kids things just to shut them up. These are the same parents who complain about how the newer generations are spoiled, entitled, and greedy. I resolved that I would never allow my kids to walk all over me and use me as a doormat – and to be the best parent I could possibly be.
Now that I have my son, who is almost 4 years old, I STILL have no patience for spoiled rotten kids and I refuse to allow my son to become one. I try to teach him to respect himself and others.
Don’t get me wrong, my son is definitely spoiled – but I will not let him act like it. Everything he has, he’s earned with good behavior. When he attempts bad behavior, things get taken away. I can walk into the toy section of our local department store without fear of him throwing a tantrum when we walk out with nothing. I take pride in my parenting skills and in my son when other people tell me that he’s a good kid, a well-behaved boy, and so polite. I feel like I’m doing my part as his Mom, and he’s doing his part as my son.
Kids are kids, I understand that. My son is not perfect and I accept it. Twice I have carried my whimpering child out of a store because he didn’t get his way. We made our way to the car, I placed him in the backseat, and we talked through the problem – no, he did not get what he wanted. I believe you CAN reason with a child, and I’m the Mom having nightly conversations with my son about why things are right or wrong. I am not the type of parent to shove my head in the sand and give in to my son’s whims. I try to be a good role model and help him down the path to making good decisions. I have never raised my hand to my son and I never will. A lot of people chuckle and laugh at my parenting skills – which is their own prerogative – but I believe it’s working for us.
I’m FAR from being a perfect parent. I have my bad days just like every other mother. There are days when I want to lock myself in my bedroom and let my son scream on the other side of the door. There are days when I want to run away and never return (no, this would never happen). Of course I have those days when I just want to throw in the proverbial towel and claim defeat (yes, I have had the days where I let him get away with some things because I was just so exhausted I could not physically or emotionally keep up). I have sat in front of the clock, counting the hours and minutes until my Hubster returned home from work to take over for half an hour while I regained my sanity.
We are not perfect. He has his moments and I have mine. We have our problems, and we deal with them. What makes us a family is that we work through our moments together.
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