Never say these 5 phrases to your kids, says psychologist—here's why
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archived 6 Jul 2021 12:54:59 UTC

Seriously...as a parent I feel like I'm constantly stressed out on finding the right words and approaches to reinforce the right things but sometimes articles from "the experts":

https://archive.is/yP0yu

Just make me seethe with contempt for how out of touch and frankly awful some parenting gurus are.

Its not all bad to be fair. I agree with number 2 and teaching kids how to recognize their own emotions and think empathetically but then there's shit like number 3:

Furthermore, complaining about your job around your kids teaches them that work isn’t fun. As a result, they may grow up believing that adulthood is about spending half of your waking hours in complete misery.

Oh, well we can't have that can we? Oh no junior, I swear daddy definitely loves clocking in at 6am and answering emails and crunching numbers rather then going outside to play basketball with you or build that new lego set. What, you're grown up now and you hate your job and the way it makes you feel incredibly alienated in a way you never could have imagined? You just need to work on your attitude! Fuck that noise!

Even number 4, which I agree is good in practice, is arrived at for the wrong reasons. Its not about teaching kids some nonsense about being the sole arbiter and decision maker in charge of your life. Its about reinforcing the responsibilities and obligations you have to one another, whether that's doing work or going to help grandma get some things down from the attic, or getting groceries for the week at the store.

In a few years I genuinely hope we evolve to the point of realizing that teaching our children neoliberal mindset is its own form of abuse.

  • DickFuckarelli [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Jesus Christ.

    OK. So normally, while I agree with most people's take on the lib media bullshit, I find most HexBaron's reactions to be hyperbolic.

    But holy shit, fuck this article. As a dad, with kids, I'm totally outraged someone had the nerve to publish this. My dad never took me to Disney World for a vacation. Fuck no. We were beyond poor. And that's this capitalistic system the world over. Like, most families cannot afford to ever go to Disney World; no amount of budgeting can fix that. Most families who do go to DW only ever go once (maybe twice tops) while the kids are living in the house. The baseline for a 4 person family to go to Disney is 5k. That's the starting point.

    This article only gets worse from there. Lie to your kid about your job! lol you fuckinkiddingme? If work was fun rich people would steal that from us too. Even if you like your job, there is way more shit you'd rather be doing unless you hate your kids.