What are some of the trickiest things you’ve had to teach your kids?
6 Things That Are Hard for Moms to Teach Their Kids About The Real World
Parenting
may not come with a manual, I get that. But it could at least come with
some sort of checklist or task manager or something. Every morning is
anew with things that you need to impart, a piece of wisdom you feel
like you should probably drop, a do or don’t that—if not shared—may
derail some socially unacceptable faux pas when they’re at their first
college party or on a date with someone they, and possibly you, really
like.
It’s impossible to remember to tell them everything, try as you might.
Heck, sometimes it’s hard just to be sure they leave the house with
their teeth brushed and their lunch in hand. But there are some key
things that are a little harder to make sure the kids know before they
leave the arch of safety and spoonfed lesson-learning that is your home.
Mainly because they’re just tough to learn as an adult, much less a
child.
You’re not going to be good at everything. There
are some things they’re going to be mediocre at, and that’s OK.
Everybody can’t be a superstar at everything or there wouldn’t be any
superstars.
The people in charge don’t have all the answers.
How do you tell your kid that chances are, they’ll have a boss or a
supervisor at some point in their working life who’s completely
incompetent and isn’t qualified to manage a baseball card collection let
alone a team of other people? We teach them from early on that
teachers, cops, judges, even the president, are to be respected because
they’re in positions of authority and have a reasonable portion of
expertise to be there. But you and I both know that ain’t always true.
Credit is golden.
I didn’t start understanding the whole FICO score thing until I was
well into my 20s and had unceremoniously destroyed my credit with a Visa
issued to me in my jobless, moneyless, have-a-way-to-pay-my-bill-less
freshman year of college. My mom had taught me about saving (even though
I didn’t do it), but she forgot about credit and even better,
creditors. That one slipped through her mental cracks. I assume she was
waiting until she thought I was old enough to understand and just got
sidetracked by lessons about boys or parallel parking or the infestation
that would certainly erupt if I didn’t clean out the dish drain or any
number of other things.
What books say isn’t always true.
Picking and choosing which newspapers to put faith and trust in is hard
enough for an adult, let alone kids who have information coming at them
from every direction. Encourage critical thinking—but let kids know
they have to discuss their findings in a respectful way, to you and
their teachers—and hopefully they’ll develop their own sensibilities for
what’s valid.
Not everyone is going to be your friend.
This one is especially tricky because in one breath, you’re convincing
them how completely and totally wonderful they are, how they’re a gift
to your life—and anyone else who knows them, for that matter—and how
they have so many contributions just waiting to be shared with the rest
of the world. But then you’ve got to turn around and let them know that
not everyone is going to share that same enthusiasm about them.
You’re going to have to deal with it. Like is full
of wonderful experiences and moments of blissful serenity. Those can be
fleeting, however, so in the meantime, kids have to learn how to ride
life out and suck it up. Seeing as how plenty of adults haven’t mastered
the technique yet, it’s a toss-up whether the next gen will get the
memo. All we can do is lead and hope.
What are some of the trickiest things you’ve had to teach your kids?
Quoting KickButtMama:
I've found one of the hardest things to explain to my boys is what people really mean. My oldest has Aspergers. Due to this condition he has zero means of infering meaning from tone, facial expression or sarcasm. We live in a very sarcastic society! If someone says something sarcastically or uses a metaphor or idiom, then he gets vy confused.... Just think, how many times have you said/heard, "take a seat!" my son would literally pick up a chair and ask where he should take it. I find it so hard to explain why people don't just say what they mean!
Quoting carolkey74:
Ugh i know that feeling!! My son would be sooooo upset if some random child at the grocery store wouldn't give him a hug. I instituted a Personal Bubble. You are not allowed to invade someones invisible personal bubble without their express permission. Now, when DS is getting too close (especially with infants) i just have to say the phrase 'personal bubble' and he knows to take a half-step back. It took a lot of repetition, and his natural impulse is still to get too close, but he at least listens..I think using the 'invisible bubble' as if we are all spacemen in invisible protective spheres, helped him cuz he could visualize it.
(there is a little girl a few doors down who bosses and bullies everyone. She takes all the toys and tells everyone what they will be doing in her game. Julia often feels she has to do what she says, and I want her to be able to make her own decisions instead of just doing whatever this girl says)
Cole has a hard time understanding that his friends will lie to him. 8(
The Book Challenge
- Cafe Amber
on May. 11, 2012 at 1:55 AM