Are there any parents out there who have suggestions for how to lesson the "guilt" -- or at least assuage my tiresomeness -- for having to say "NO" all the time? "No, you can't play on my iPod." "No more TV!" " No, you can't download Fruit Ninjas." "No we can't have a playdate today because I just cannot take having two screaming boys in the house." "No you cannot have Henry over because you have not cleaned up your room, done your homework or attempted to do any of your other chores!"
BLAH,BLAH,BLAH! On and on it goes.
In the "olden" days of my parents, a good, stiff J & B (scotch for those too young to know!) did the trick. They were knocking those suckers back. Sending the kids outside to play was also an alternative. Sending them across the street to the neighbors was a good choice. I recall spending cumulative hours, peering through the screen door of house next to ours, seeing what delights my friend's Mom had cooked for her huge Irish Catholic brood of ten. There was always some ham and turkey in their house -- very tempting for a young Jewish girl being brought up in a Kosher household.
As kids, we watched as our parents got ready to go out most weekends. Yes, they left us. Often. They were sloshed a lot or leaving us to our own devices…or to the vagaries of babysitters. Often.
There are plenty of books out there on how to coddle our children. How to "rear" them with logic and love. How to help them find their inner selves. How to protect them. Perhaps enough is enough. What I'd like is more time for parents, not parenting!
Maybe what we need to assuage this guilt, this constant cloud of "NO" is to walk away more.
Let's start letting them fall down. Let's let them screw up. Let's let them run amok.
Heck, it's for their own good!
Well, then how will we deal with the guilt of their chaos? We'll go back to coddling!
Anyone have ANY ideas? We need help.
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