Okay, so I found this awesome (and when I say awesome, I mean AWESOME!!!!) article yesterday on Nate's cousin Emily's blog. I LOVE it!!!! I'm curious what others think of it. The parts you like and dislike, agree with or disagree with. I personally have felt like writing something similar MANY times, but didn't feel like it would be acceptable. And whether this is or not :) I am LOVING how they describe everything and all the areas they touched on. Helicopter parents make me CRAZY!!!! I will just leave my opinions at that for now. I am curious what you all think......
Click Here to see the article
Click Here to see the article
6 comments:
I totally read this article yesterday! I love it. I get crap all the time about how laid back I am in many areas when it comes to my kids, but my kids can make their own lunch, and when Jarom doesn't do his homework after I have reminded him about it once he knows that if he doesn't get it done he's the only one to blame. I think in many cases we are teaching our children that they are not responsible for anything. If they get a bad grade it's because they have a bad teacher. Sometimes it's good to have a bad teacher and have the chance to learn how to deal with making the best of a bad situation. As an adult the situation of working with an unproductive or unhelpful person will arise at some point. I have a lot of opinion on this topic.....I'm not the best parent, but the other day one of my friends pointed out that if something happened to me Jarom would be able to take care of himself and Blair until someone came to take care of them. If he's this productive now I have hope for him becoming a responsible adult, which is kind of the point of parenting.:)
I love your comment Alyssa. I agree completley!! My kids do WAY more than I think a lot of kids their age do, simply because I need them to! And I think it has benefitted them SO MUCH to be so independent. I love the chance to teach my kids that when they don't remember something that they need to take to school in the morning, that they will not have it. I think that was something I NEVER learned because my mom would bring me stuff if I forgot it. Experience is knowledge. As far as the whole letting a 9 year old take the subway part..... WOW!! That would take some convincing for me.... that's still pushing it a little to me, but I guess it all depends. Anyway... more comments plese!!
So I was sitting here reading the article starting to wonder if I am too much like a helicopter mom and then,no joke, Charlie comes in and threw two folded up dirty diapers at me feet. lol, kinda ironic.. anyway it was a good article and definitely something to keep in mind as my kids grow. I think hovering is good for Charlie in some cases so he doesn't eat a battery or whatever but I still want to let him experience things like church and the grocery store even though there are germs there. He is such a social boy that those places are so crucial for him. I like what they said about playtime being so important (I can't believe schools have thought about getting rid of recess!!!) It was also interesting how they brought up how 10 is the new 2 and we're not letting our kids do the same things we did growing up. Definitely hard one to balance though since it's a different world than it used to be. In the end, we just have to trust that we are entitled to revelation for our children and the spirit will warn us if we're letting them do something that might harm them. (Of course sometimes common sense can warn us of that too)
I didn't quite make it through the whole article, but I agreed with what I read. I see a ton of parents with the attitude that "my kid is going to be the best at everything" even if it means bending over backwards to make that happen...what they don't realize is that they are raising kids who will have an inability to motivate themselve and that can become a real problem later in life. And I don't know if the article is really even about this but for some reason it made me think of all the people who made me think I lacked parenting skills because i didn't buy organic baby food or teach my kids sign language...oh and I actually allow my kids to have junk food...Im just kinda crazy like that though!!
Somje of those helicopter parents would come over to my house and have a heartattack! In the afternoon my 2 older boys are all over the neighborhood with the other neighborhood kids.(the baby stays with me, it's too cold out for him.) I check my sons homework, point out mistakes, and then he can fix them. They make their own breakfast, lunch and do alot on their own! If you don't give them freedom, then how do they learn! Great article and I hope some other people I know read it and catch the hint!
Yeah, Shannon, I felt the same way, thinking about all the times I brought marshmellows for my kids to munch on during play group and everyone else had healthy snacks LOL!! It's nice to not feel like you're ruining your kid, and I think this article points out that some of these things that have been so frowned on for the last decade, really aren't so evil. It's very refreshing I think. Not that I ever really cared, I just always felt guilty :)
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