Life Desk :
HERE goes then. This is my big, shocking parenting confession.
See, what I’ve done is … Well, I’ve … I’ve … Well you see, I’ve actually done nothing. And that’s precisely the problem. By doing nothing, I have broken every rule of modern parenting.
In modern parenting, you have to do things a certain way. Your choice of way isn’t that important. What matters is that you have a way. No way? No way! That’s way beyond the point of acceptability.
But alas, I am not a helicopter parent. I am not a lawnmower parent. I am not a paleo parent. I do not do permissive parenting, attachment parenting, tiger parenting, authoritative parenting or any other type of parenting with an adjective and/or jungle beast before it.
And according to society, that makes me one seriously bad dad.
My parenting style basically involves heaps of lying around while the kids forage for the
My parenting style basically involves heaps of lying around while the kids forage for themselves. Source: NewsComAu
Want to know what my style of parenting is? It sounds terribly neglectful and dangerous, but I just kind of, you know, do it. My parenting style is basically a blend of a blend of common sense, intuition and occasional ice cream bribes.
Oh, and lots of love and encouragement along the way.
I get loads of stuff wrong obviously. I cheer a little loudly from the sidelines at junior sport. I’ve been known to stop for hash browns en route to said healthy activity. Also, I admit that a few years ago I might once have sprinkled salt instead of sugar on my toddler’s Weet-Bix, then barked at him when he wouldn’t eat a mouthful. Actually it was my wife who did that. Anyway, oops on her behalf.
But generally, our family just kind of trundles along in our haphazard, but mostly happy way.
Ah, but that’s not good enough, is it? Because there’s a new faddish way of doing everything in modern life, isn’t there. Not to mention an expert to help us do it. We used to just run around the block by ourselves to stay fit. Now we need a personal trainer to show us how (or motivate us) to do it.
People used to save cash and spend sensibly. Now we rack up credit card debit and employ a financial planner to unscramble our money messes.
We used to eat normal food and not get fat. Now we have to spend crazy money on wacky diets and superfoods to give us back all the energy we lost worrying about our diets.
Kids, we’re following one of those excellent new diets and eating only grass from now on.
Kids, we’re following one of those excellent new diets and eating only grass from now on. Naaaah. Source: NewsComAu
It’s the same deal with parenting. Everyone’s spruiking a strategy these days. And you know what else? The people who fall for all this newfangled crap aren’t doing it for their kids half the time. They’re doing it for themselves. Because they want to be seen as good parents.
Just a couple of weeks ago I read some story about the new trend of “paleo parenting”. Like the paleo diet, it means heaps of raw, healthy food, plus heaps of healthy unstructured outdoor play.
Yep, it’s so unstructured that there’s a word for it. Cough, irony, cough.
In an article in the New York Times, one so-called “primal parent” spoke of the joy of watching her five-year-old play in the mud. “She loves bugs. She loves dirt. I think she’s going to be an entomologist,” the Mum said.
Wait a minute. You’re talking about unstructured play while projecting a future for your five-year-old in the same breath?
Let me share what happened with my family during the recent spring school holidays. My youngest kid built a dam across a small creek that runs down onto the beach from the bush. This activity was great fun, but it is unlikely he’ll be an engineer when he grows up.
He just built the dam because he was playing on the beach like a normal kid. Later we went home and ate some unhealthy food and watched a bit of telly. Then we played soccer on the road, because the road was pretty quiet. Then we went for an evening run along every street of the small coastal town. Then we got in the car and drove our running route to measure the distance. It was 3.6km if you really want to know.
Involving your young ones in the activities you love is an excellent parenting ploy, even
Involving your young ones in the activities you love is an excellent parenting ploy, even if the smartypants experts would call it “selfish behaviour”. Source: NewsComAu
We mostly did the same stuff the next day. And the day after that, for a whole week. There was no overarching guiding principle for the way our family hung out together. It just kind of happened.
And you know what? That’s exactly what made it so special.
-Internet
