Maintaining Sanity
I really like to look at other people’s parenting styles and see how I can use some of their skills to improve my extremely poor parenting style. See, last weekend, my uncle and aunty (just a few years older than me) came over for a barbie…and they too have three kids. Of course, the youngest one is already 6, so I can imagine, they’ve pretty much perfected their own parenting style. All the kids were playing the Wii, and well, my No.1 decided to flaunt how fast he could go on the Mario Kart game. The other kids have never played it before, so it was a tad unfair. He started shouting, “I’m the winner! I’m the winner! You’re the loser!”, and I was quite appalled.
I started to shout, “HOOOI!!!!!” and wanted to continue shouting, “Don’t be boastful - it’s rude!”…but my uncle and aunty was startled by my loud “HOOOI!!!” and looked at me.
OOPS!
I bashfully walked to him and talked quietly to him about not showing off and letting others win for a change. You see, that’s how they reprimand their kids when they act out or misbehave. They get down to their level, look them in their eyes and talk quietly to them.
Me? I yell so much, that I know that without using a blood pressure monitor, my blood pressure would be very very high! Sigh..I think the trouble is, I’m usually doing an errand or chore and just find that shouting stops them misbehaving very quickly. But the problem is… it’s doesn’t show that I have any respect for them. So…. I shouldn’t expect them to have any respect for me?
I don’t know. Sometimes, instilling fear in them works…but at the same time, it backfires.
It’s tough, this parenting. I keep failing it. Gah!
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LOL! Sometimes a “hoi” is faster to get their attention. In our family, Jon is the one always yelling bloody murder..hahaha..
You seem to be doing fine from where I’m standing…
I am also the type who goes “HOOI!”, and then my wife says… don’t be so fierce. Save it for the big things.
u r doin great. just tat we somehow always feel others r better than us, *normal parenting*