Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Because no one has told us how to parent! We get not to spank or yell, but gentle parenting is HELL ON EARTH for parents. I think gentle parenting is leading the mental health crisis. But yes, let me stay calm and sane while kids tantrum, throw things and won't do anything you tell them to do. I think to effectively gentle parent you need to be on Prozac or Valium. We talk about emotions nonstop with our kids and what to do when they have big feelings.
Well you know what? Mommy has big feelings about no one ever listening, about the house being a disaster, about you not eating dinner, about you hitting me. Clearly no one cares about parents though and we're just the sacrificial lambs to gentle parenting. I have a feeling by the time millennials are done parenting, we're going to be so checked out that we'll never be able to grandparent or see our kids again as adults. Or we'll be in the psych wards.
You don’t have to subscribe to what’s the parenting trend du jour is. Trust your instincts. It’s ok to yell sometimes. It’s ok to lose your cool. It’s good for your kids to see you as a human with normal emotions. It’s good for them to see you mess up a bit and correct course. I dare say it’s even good for them to feel a tiny bit of that long lost emotion called shame in some cases. I’m not sure who you were expecting to tell you these things. Learning to parents is a process. When something’s not working for you, try something different.
Anonymous wrote:Because no one has told us how to parent! We get not to spank or yell, but gentle parenting is HELL ON EARTH for parents. I think gentle parenting is leading the mental health crisis. But yes, let me stay calm and sane while kids tantrum, throw things and won't do anything you tell them to do. I think to effectively gentle parent you need to be on Prozac or Valium. We talk about emotions nonstop with our kids and what to do when they have big feelings.
Well you know what? Mommy has big feelings about no one ever listening, about the house being a disaster, about you not eating dinner, about you hitting me. Clearly no one cares about parents though and we're just the sacrificial lambs to gentle parenting. I have a feeling by the time millennials are done parenting, we're going to be so checked out that we'll never be able to grandparent or see our kids again as adults. Or we'll be in the psych wards.
Anonymous wrote:I think part of it is that to survive these days, most families have to have both parents working. It’s very difficult to get by on a single income.
And I think when neither parent spends full days with their kids, they don’t develop the skills needed to parent them effectively. So they go the path of least resistance, let them have screens, snowplow for them, do what they need to do to get through the day.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I think part of it is that to survive these days, most families have to have both parents working. It’s very difficult to get by on a single income.
And I think when neither parent spends full days with their kids, they don’t develop the skills needed to parent them effectively. So they go the path of least resistance, let them have screens, snowplow for them, do what they need to do to get through the day.
I think studies show that stay at home moms in earlier eras spent less time with their kids not more.
To me, the bigger issue is that kids can no longer roam outside independently, so they expect their parents to act as entertainers. Parents can't possibly keep that up, so screens.
Anonymous wrote:I think part of it is that to survive these days, most families have to have both parents working. It’s very difficult to get by on a single income.
And I think when neither parent spends full days with their kids, they don’t develop the skills needed to parent them effectively. So they go the path of least resistance, let them have screens, snowplow for them, do what they need to do to get through the day.
Anonymous wrote:Millennials are more likely to be gentle, authoritative parents. To Boomers who are used to authoritarian parenting, it probably seems weak - but I bet Millennials’ offspring spend less time in therapy as adults.
Anonymous wrote:I though millennials were helicopters who hover too close and don't let their children make independent decisions.
Boomers let their children run feral around the neighborhood and settle fights without any adult supervision or intervention.