photo credit: magnusfranklin

Parents be consistent with your kids and you'll all be winners.

One year at my school's Junior Olympics  a second grader became very upset that he hadn't received the ribbon for the race he had just run. The teacher explained the obvious:  "But you didn't win.  The winner gets the blue ribbon."  

The seven year old frowned indignantly and said, "But it isn't fair, the winner always gets the prize!"

It was enough that the other kid had won, but give him the prize too?  That was just too much!

Sometimes we parents get our thinking warped like that too.  We expect to have well behaved, well mannered kids, but we don't always teach them how to become what we expect.

Too often we are inconsistent and send mixed messages. Kids seem to sense when they can push the limits and get by with it.  At an early age they pick up on when we don't have the energy, or will power, to follow through with our half-hearted rules of discipline.

 It's true. When we are tired,  or just don't want to be in the parenting mode, it is easier to look the other way and let an unacceptable behavior pass unacknowledged.  Or sometimes we find ourselves laughing at the very offense that at another time would make us angry.

Hey, we want the kids to make us look good, but we haven't done all we should to earn that blue ribbon.

Be consistent by saying what you mean and meaning what you say.  Kids need to know that someone is in charge and that someone is you.

Oh yeah, and enjoy the race.  They grow up way too fast.

The Schoolmarm

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