A little while ago, my husband decided to tell our daughter Seesa, that we were in fact not the bosses of her. This was of course during some altercation where Seesa proclaimed, "you are not the boss of me!", and my husband told her that no, we aren't - in an attempt to teach her that she's the boss of herself, in the hopes that she would learn about taking responsibility for her own actions.
She's five. As probably goes without saying, I've been living with the wrath of this new found knowledge of hers ever since. And I'm running out of coming up with rational reasons that she should listen to me and do what I say, even though, I am not the boss of her.
I believe that as parents, we should try to give consistent messages to our children, so I tried to back him up on this one. However, the other day, I finally broke down. I told her that maybe Daddy isn't the boss of her, but I AM! I think I may have even said something about "as long as you live under this roof...". Oh well. Go big or go home.
Friday, November 21, 2008
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4 comments:
LOL, that is a dilemma. I like the idea of personal responsibility a lot (especially if it means that I have less to do). But I think that you're right, and kids often focus on the part of the message that they want to hear and not on the entire thing.
Ugh. I am the antithesis of your husband and not in a good way. Whenever I get fed up with the whining and talking back, I say, who is the boss here?? You are mommy, they chime. I don't think that's going to work for me when they are sixteen. Or even seven.
We're having that SAME conversation here (B and I). It's not pretty. At all.
The other day, my 5-year-old told me I wasn't her freind anymore. I said "you're right, I'm not. I'm your Mom"! Somehow, I got pleasure out of my brilliant statement!
-Saved by Grace
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