I feel very strongly about parenting, not because I think that it makes a huge difference to how the child will turn out but because I think it makes a huge difference to how children experience childhood.
-
-
The problem is that this can't be helped to a certain extent because kids don't have the judgement to make all their own decisions and do need guidance and boundaries.
Show this thread -
So, I think parents have a difficult balancing act because, on the one hand, they need to keep their kids safe, healthy, educated, well-behaved and adequately supervised and on the other, they need to try to give them as much independence, privacy & autonomy as possible.
Show this thread -
I get most furious at parents who seem to take some kind of pleasure in a controlling role and think 'my house, my rules' is some kind of ethical justification for those rules. Those who take pride in being disciplinarians and having a gazillion largely arbitrary rules.
Show this thread -
Those who think its generally good for kids to be forced to defer to authority just because it's authority and it doesn't matter much whether the authority is respect-worthy or not. (Still think I'm gonna realise I'm conservative, conservatives?)
Show this thread -
I remember writing in my teenage angst diary 'They have the legal right to make the rules but they seem to expect me to still like them if they do. I have control over that.' :-/
Show this thread -
If I was a kid now, I'd probably be informing them that I was withdrawing my emotional labour in protest at my oppression. God, its a good thing I was a kid in the 80s when people mostly ignored me.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
My sister was a worst case scenario ‘smother/helicopter parent’. She died when her kids were 10, 14 & 15. You never saw such lost kids in your entire life. They went from that to a totally uninvolved (probably highly depressed) father. They had zero life skills & had no idea how
-
Tweet unavailable
-
I WANT to step in and help him (my BIL) but he has harshly rejected us all and they’ve become shut-ins. He’s a complete recluse, always has been. We’ve tried. I’ve really tried to be close to them.
-
They'll know you're there if they need someone to talk to.
-
Yeah. I want them to know that. I hope they know that. I don’t care how many years pass my arms will always be open.
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.