The Daily: The Parents Aren’t Alright - Link
My crummy tl;dr - Intensive parenting and social media parenting shit making us feel guilty for everything. Previous generations parenting was going about life with the kid doing whatever on their own. Now we are on the floor with them always in their business thinking and preparing ten steps ahead
I’m curious what parents of kids 5+ think of this. At one point in the podcast, someone says, “Bigger kids, bigger problems is what they say. It becomes less physically demanding, but it’s more mentally demanding.”
My kids are 4 and under, so I’m definitely in a phase where they are physically demanding.
I’ve been planning on listening to that. I try to make sure the kids know I’m there for them, set healthy limits, teach responsibility, etc. if you stress about everything, the kids get stressed out too. They will mirror your state. They learn so much more from what we do than from what we actively teach. To quote a friend, if you want them to be better, you have to be better. There’s a kitchen version of that which may apply too, affix your own oxygen mask first.
There’s so much to stress and panic about, and I want them to have it better than me, I don’t want them to feel they’re a source of that. Couldn’t be good for them.