Tag: parenting

Babies are just puppies in (vaguely) humanoid form, aren’t they? They thrive on noise, carry on in incomprehensible babble, don’t listen to a word you say, have what appears to be an endless reserve of energy until they abruptly and mercifully drop off to sleep, they drool and need chew toys. They are property damage on legs, gnawing on and carrying away items they shouldn’t, the more expensive and fragile the better. Also they are adorable, vulnerable beings who need endless kindness, patience, and firm consistency to thrive, and if you don’t provide these things I’m coming for your irresponsible jerk ass.

You know, if your screen time-restricted child’s reaction to his friend watching TV was “pulling her hair and
pulling her down” because “he didn’t like that his friend was completely glued to the TV” and “it makes him a little crazy,” maybe the takeaway isn’t that screen time is bad for kids. Maybe it’s that you need to teach your kid better ways to ask for attention.

thedaddycomplex:

Forcing Failure

The boys were told they could test for their yellow-black belt (that’s the yellow belt with a black stripe) in their tae kwon do class. They went for three weeks not practicing and repeatedly telling me they were ready to test.

I thought they weren’t. I thought they needed to practice. But they insisted. So I let them, not because I believed them, but because I felt like they needed to learn a lesson.

They tested during their next class. And they failed in front of all of the other students and their parents. Both of my boys were devastated and near tears.

The instructor gave them four days to practice and then they could try again. On the way home, we talked about what this proved: Without practice and commitment, nothing is learned, nothing is achieved.

I’d tried to tell them that before, but failure proved a better teacher.

They spent the next four days practicing. As I write this, they’re in their class. They test at the end.

I don’t know if they’ll pass. I hope they do. But if they don’t, at least they’ll know what to do next—more practice, more commitment. Because they now know failure is not an end, but a step, a motivator, and sometimes it’s the only teacher to which a child will listen.

We really need more parents to allow their kids to fail and learn from it. Let kids make their own mistakes and find their own initiative.