Little House Lessons

From the mind of an early childhood specialist, teacher, and mental health professional: (and backed by copious amounts of evidence)

When you squash a young child’s ability to say no to the parent(s), you must accept full responsibility later when they are unable to:

Lead a balanced work/home life
Deny unwanted advances from others
Quiet their anxious mind from intrusive thoughts
Say no to sexual predators
Maintain autonomy over their body
Trust their instincts
Know their core identity
Stand up for themselves

This whole approach to parenting that uses phrase such as

“You don’t say no to mom/dad”
“You obey mom/dad instantly”
“You always obey the teacher”

…is child abuse. Specifically, for those in the back, it’s emotional and psychological abuse.

Our job as parents is to GUIDE children.

Guiding means allowing space for them to practice all the aforementioned techniques- so that they turn into natural skills as young adults.

If you have uttered the above similar phrases or entertain the mindset that children are to practice first time obedience….

….You absolutely require professional counseling and an apology to your child(ren.)

Parenting is supposed to be fu***ng hard.

You’re responsible for how they turn out later in life - and you’re responsible for guiding by example.

And if your example isn’t full of emotional validation, empathy, APPROPRIATE accountability, many apologies, and double the laughter…then you’re not parenting.

(Psst: if you believe in these misguided concepts of authoritarian-oops-you-like-to-wrongly-call-it-authoritative parenting, then you’re not parenting 😘)

You’re commanding. And that, my dear, is entirely unrelated to childhood.

In short : behavior modification is not your goal. And raising pliable children is DEFINITELY not your job.

And keep Bluey! The best show I’ve seen in my 41 years.