I find it interesting to see how other parents “parent”. Some smack, some turn a blind eye to bad behaviour, some give chocolate and others don’t allow any preservatives in their kids food. Not that there’s anything wrong with any of that. It just gets me thinking about how different we all are.
I try not to judge other parents who do nothing but plonk their kid in front of the TV all day or at the other extreme give their 2 year old Rubik's Cubes to solve.
An example is an acquaintance of mine who is a lot stricter than I am and will send her toddler to her room for something I would give my little one a talking to and maybe a time out. But that’s ok, we respect each others way of doing things and its all hunkydory.
But then there are parents who seem to think that their way is the only way. I had a friend like that. I think she is too liberal and palms her kid off to everyone, she thinks I mollycoddle my girl. Its sad that we can’t just let each other be.
I find myself to be a yeller now that I have two chipmunks demanding my time. My toddler gets up to mishchief while I’m feeding the baby and am pretty much stuck to the couch for an hour. She gets told calmly “don’t open the fridge please”. Then by the time it's repeated for the 4th time I’m yelling and the please bit comes through gritted teeth. All the while I’m still sitting in the one position and toddler knows she can get away with it.
When I go out and to places like playgroup its interesting to see all these different parenting techniques in action. If someone’s kid upsets mine, I may say something to the child but leave it to the parent to discipline them but what do you do when the child’s parent doesn’t do anything?. Or to the other extreme what if the other parent comes down so hard on their child you feel bad for them? It can be a difficult territory to navigate
Its a parenting jungle out there!