Parenting Errors We Cannot Afford To Make

Parenting is no easy job. In fact, some will tell you that it’s the hardest job in the world! The balance needed to raise children is so delicate that the most honest of errors can have adverse effects. Here are five parenting errors we cannot afford to make, and often don’t even know we’re making.

Overprotection

Now, nobody’s saying you should let your child play with knives and fire; however, there is a stage in every child’s life in which they have to learn how to avoid danger practically and out of their own intuition.

A recent review of 70 studies looking at 200,000 children, conducted by the University of Warwick, suggested that children who have overprotective parents are more likely to be bullied by their peers.

By keeping our children too safe, we ironically rob them of essential life skills needed in order to avoid danger and thrive in life.

Furthermore, since overprotection often means restriction, many children tend to rebel against being wrapped up in cotton wool throughout their whole lives and develop extremely disobedient traits, out of that rebellion.

Irrational Rules

It is not enough for a parent to simply set rules. These rules must be sufficiently explained to the kids, to the extent that they know why they’re in place and the consequences of disobedience.

Rules that lack logic lack respect. Respect isn’t given by the parents in laying down the law (as it is done so without question or explanation) and respect is also absent from the children who cannot truly respect something they do not understand.

Inconsistence

The effects of inconsistence are simple: children will not respect you or know how they should act. Children should be raised by a specific philosophy and life understanding, in order to avoid them developing disordered understandings of the world and how to behave within it.

Parents are responsible for setting examples for their children, which cannot be done adequately without such examples being consistent.

Irresponsibility

Being responsible is an essential part of parenting. A child needs to learn how to be responsible through the parents’ example. Any bills, mortgages, CIS tax payments etc, that need paying should be done so on time, in order for children to learn responsibility.

Of course, if you are genuinely unable to pay back a bill, then that is a different matter.

The message is that through your example, your children can themselves grow into responsible adults.

Undervaluing or Overvaluing School Education

The importance of school education cannot be underestimated. It gives children a wider range of opportunities in life and helps them better understand the world. It is for this reason that it always puzzles me to see parents who deem education to be unimportant. If anything, they should be doing the exact opposite, enrolling their kids in the best schools in Brentwood (or in the area they live in) so that those children can be set up for a better future. Parents should always take an active interest in their children’s schooling and education should be encouraged.

It should also be noted that education isn’t simply what is learned in school textbooks. Educating can be done through conversation and encouraging an inquisitive nature in our children or even watching informative television programs.

Overvaluing school education is also a major error many parents sometimes make. There is a range of millionaires and entrepreneurs that did not get to where they are in life through a university degree or even an A-Level. Not being the best at school doesn’t mean your kid is a lost cause, just that they have different needs and ways of learning. But that doesn’t mean that school is redundant, just that it is only the foundation that children should build upon and around.