He unwillingly went into karate and afterwards was happy about it. The instructor "wanted to offer" me "parenting advice." Now usually I am open to advice or suggestions but then there are times where I would like to punch someone in the mouth for their thoughts :) She said, "you shouldn't give him a choice. Make him understand you are the one making the decisions." I had to explain to her that he was upset thinking I was going to leave him since he knew I had a doctor's appointment. He was scared. He typically doesn't break down like this. And like I said, he broke down, he wasn't throwing a temper tantrum. Then she went on to disagree with me and said, "oh no, this is how 3 year olds act. They want to be decision makers. This is about him making the decision, not about your doctor's appt." Well that is where non-parents make me mad. How does she know what he is thinking? Yes I agree 3 year olds want to be decision makers but he is also scared I am going to leave him. And everyone parents differently. I think back to the parenting class we went to a few months ago and they made the same point (children like to make decisions). Give them choices (as we do) but make sure one of the choices is one that you want and then they think they made that decision. In this case, William did not want karate, ChuckECheese, to go with me to the doctor, or anything for that matter. He just wanted to hold onto me. She just kept going on about how I had to be stern and tell him what he was going to do. I just love when adults without children offer parenting advice.
The afternoon did get better. We had fun at ChuckECheese.
Now we are home and I am going to try to get these little guys to take a nap. I know I am stretching it but oh, it would be so nice if they did :) 
1 comment:
What a great mom, taking the kids to ChuckECheese! You will always know your child better than anyone else. It's always funny (annoying?) to me when other people try to give advice when they know nothing about my children.
Post a Comment