Dear parents: your children are more capable than you think
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Anonymous
| Best post I’ve read on DCUM, and a reminder for parents who have children of all ages. Thank you! |
Anonymous
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Start gentle when they are young and eager to be independent. I had a parent shocked at pick up when their 16 month old hustled over and put her own winter boots on.
The same carries well into the teen years. We are looking to raise adults not children. They can make their own lunch, prepare a dinner, do laundry, and learn basic car and house maintenance. |
Anonymous
| I couldn’t agree more. But go to any other thread (about constant snacking or a child not being ready for toilet-training or not eating in the library) and you get very contradictory responses. |
Anonymous
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Yes, thank you for reminding us! My kids went to a Montessori preschool. The Montessori method emphasizes independence and self-regulation. This was particularly important for my child with special needs, who really needed help and encouragement needed in that direction. My other kids had no difficulty at all. |
Anonymous
+2, agree completely. Thanks for this! |
Anonymous
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The place where I fail is I let her watch TV while eating because otherwise she doesn’t eat. Silver lining is - it’s songs and shows in our mother tongue which is not frequently spoken here, so semi-“educational” since it is helping her be bilingual. She speaks English and the other language equally well. But still, parenting fail...
I do all the other stuff like let her put her jacket on, etc. I start the “getting ready” routine early so I don’t have to rush her. |
Anonymous
+3 Thanks, OP |
Anonymous
I completely agree with OP. - daycare worker |
Anonymous
| I feel like a great parent after reading the OP! My 3 year old does everything you mentioned and then some on her own. She can, OMG, button up her own cardigan (my 6 year old still can't do that, haha)! She eats off the same dishes as the rest of us and uses real (tot-sized) silverware! I get the dishes thing is probably unusual because most families we know still have their 8 year olds using plastic dishes, but everything else seems normal to me! |
Anonymous
| Spoken as a preschool teacher with no training or kids. Spoken as someone who never dealt with special needs and a child who has no understanding of their name let alone a trash can. |
Anonymous
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I get your point, OP, but keep in mind not all parents are preschool teachers, have a clue on childhood development, or the like.
Some kids may come from dysfunctional families, have jerks as parents, absent parents, or parents who otherwise lack common sense...so, no, these kids don't know (or can't) or have never been shown how to, for example, put on shoes or take the initiative to hang up their jacket. |
Anonymous
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Part of sending them to preschool is for the teachers, like Op, to teach the kids these basic skills especially if "preschool" is daycare and you're with them for 8+ hrs/day.
Isn't that what I'm paying you big bucks for? |
Anonymous
| Where are all the posters who mocked the OP of the previous thread whose kids only ate at a table?! Isn’t this what this teacher just said? |
Anonymous
Yeah, like you pay big bucks... |
Anonymous
| I like this post. I learned so much from my kids' Monetssori teachers. Some of them were not parents but they taught me so much! |