My aha for this week is that I need to be even more concerned about my kids. I'm already a fairly cautious parent and don't let my kids watch or do a lot of things that my friends children do. This week I installed parental controls on the family computer. This is something I have been meaning to do but hadn't taken the time to do. My 8 and 4 year old now have their own login and password for the computer. It only allows them access to the websites and programs that I have added. My son wanted to play a game that he had played before and was fairly annoyed that it wasn't on there. I signed on, went and looked at the game, decided he could play it and added it to his approved site. After this process, it made me feel so much better that we went through that experience together and he understands the process.
I think kids appreciate boundaries. I know my 19 year old daughter did when she was a teenager. Even when she was annoyed with me she always respected my boundaries. She has even said that she appreciated me saying no because she didn't really want to go and it made it easier for her to say her mom wouldn't let her rather than she didn't want to. I treated her teenage years more as a partnership and it worked great. I sure hope it works that well two more times but I might be pushing my luck.
Although I am not a mother, I am close to my niece and nephew, 16 and 11 respectively. They have always spent a lot of time with me and my mother. I remember once their mother saying that the only reason why they like to spend so much time at our house is because we don't have any rules and we let them do whatever they want. My niece replied to her mother, "Grandma and Ande have more rules than you and dad combined." I think this goes along with your theory that kids do want boundaries. I don't think you have anything to worry about. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeletePosted by Ande Gibbs