Monday March 4, 2019
Being besties with your child can innocently blossom into a peer relationship. At first, it feels good and you innocently believe you and your child are not like the other families. You can manage to be friends and make childrearing a democratic endeavor. All the more, when there are smaller siblings to take care of, the older child and the parent may develop a camaraderie, a team. Over time, however, it becomes clear that there is a monster in the making. The mother or father and child friendship-bonds are destined to interfere with limiting the child’s wants and implementing rules and boundaries (Twenge & Campbell, 2009). Do we sacrifice the bond for boundaries?
Boundaries are the crutches of the cripple, the roadmap for the traveler, and the instructions of a build-it-yourself-desk. Boundaries are needed to educate, condition, and cultivate responsible, and self-sufficient human beings. We prefer the next generation to be humans with grit who can set appropriate boundaries for themselves and others.
But, now your child has become your friend and you realize that it is hard to tell your friend, to clean his/her room, do homework, and leave you in peace when you are in the company of other grown-ups. The elevated status of the child as “friend” can now take on unpleasant proportions and ugly confrontations. But, let’s analyze how this shift in authority happened in the first place?
Caretakers are often isolated and limited in spending much time with friends. Without a friend as a soundboard, some sisterhood TLC, or other adult companionship. Undetected at first, the child fills that gap and with it, moves itself up in the family hierarchy. It’s understandable, mom had some weak moments, or dad needed to vent, but now it is clear that their “friendship” is not benefitting the child’s progress or the parent-child relationship. The acquired status has turned the child into an assertive, backtalking terror that turns every parent-declined request into a debate or negotiation. To make matters worse, the child feels completely entitled to “fight for his right”.
How do you turn this situation around? The best way to slowly bring back the balance is to collaboratively, parent and child, agree on which issues the child has authority over and which it doesn’t. The friendship status did not happen overnight and therefore there is no quick fix. Patience and consistency will normalize this situation. The best tip I can give is, “Whatever you do, do not let the child wear you down; don’t ever give in or all is lost!” I remember an occasion or two where being consequent with a punishment reduced me to tears from guilt, but it had to be done.
Once the boundaries have been set, prevent discussing unnecessary grown-up issues with your child and make sure your child does not overhear you negatively venting about people and situations. Sharing negative qualities of people who work with or take care of your children can cause them to worry and cause the child to lose respect for these caretakers. Negative comments diminish the authority these people need to have over the child. Additionally, your disrespect towards these persons will encourage the child to see no wrong in addressing people disrespectfully as well (family members, teachers, grandparents, housekeepers, nannies, etc.). Children learn from what the adults model and will accept it as the norm. It is very likely that in time, the child will aim the same disrespect at you, the parent.
I meet many parents who enjoy being their kids’ friends and are genuinely disappointed when their kids start taking liberties and display entitled attitudes. It’s nobody’s fault really, just a slight misunderstanding. It might be too late for prevention, but the situation can be addressed before it gets out of hand. Regular family meetings are a great tool to improve communication, give every member a chance to voice their gratitude and/or grief, and are an excellent platform for compromises but also for setting limits.
Family Meetings
Ingredients: one wooden spoon, a paper and pencil for each attendee, comfortable seating preferably at a table, 5 min. timer, each participant should have 1 long-term goal, 1 short-term goal, and a 5 min. discussion topic, written on a paper. Smaller kids can draw a picture of what they want to discuss.
Participants: all non-animal household members,
Instructions: Start with once a week, and every child and adult in the meeting will discuss 1 long-term goal and 1 short-term goal, and they may have 5 min. to discuss a topic of their choice. The speaker holds the wooden spoon. Only the person holding the wooden spoon may talk and when finished, pass the spoon to another speaker
Of course, eventually, your children can become your friends but give them a chance to grow up first. It is important not to burden young minds before they can analyze and relate to adult emotions and frustrations. You can love your kids and spoil them, but as the parent, you need to be the one who keeps them safe, sets the pace, and enforces the rules. Needless to say, you do respectfully allow room for the input of the child, according to maturity, but decisions a parent makes need to be readily accepted and respected by the child. To stop the constant negotiations, beggings, and “It’s not fair!” remarks, it helps to use the Love and Logic method (Cline & Fay, 1990) where the parent acknowledges the child’s disappointment and resentment but continues to expect and enforce the requested behavior. By displaying empathy for the child’s feelings you show you care, but by not budging you show wisdom and grit. The best response is always, “I know, that must make you feel frustrated, but what did I say?” At first, you need to stick to your guns and not give in and never let the child wear you out. After a few weeks of you saying “but what did I say?”, the child will know you are serious and stop debating. If your patience and self-control are deserting you, defer the discussion to a later time. Say, “I am losing my patience so let’s give each other a break and discuss the issue again later”. You can do it!
Young people do better when they live with enforced, age-appropriate limits (DeVore & Ginsburg, 2005). Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to be the enforcer. As Dr. Rosemond (1989) said, “If they don’t want to hear what you have to say, they don’t want to hear what you have to say, no matter how, or how many times you say it”. Show your children how much you love them and explain your motivations for decisions briefly, but stand your ground and don’t allow elongated pleads. Being your child’s best friend is not practical nor beneficial, but being a friendly parent is!
References:
DeVore, E. R., & Ginsburg, K. R. (2005). The protective effects of good parenting on adolescents. Current opinion in pediatrics, 17(4), 460-465.
Foster, W. C., & Fay, J. (1990). Parenting with love and logic: Teaching children responsibility. Colorado Springs, CO: Pinon Press.
Rosemond, J. K. (1989). John Rosemond’s Six-point Plan for Raising Happy, Healthy Children. Kansas City, MI: Andrews and McMeel.
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2009). The narcissism epidemic: Living in the age of entitlement. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.