Chutzpah!

When our child is sounding off, we have to keep our cool

“It was the end of the day, and I was tired. Really tired. I asked my 15-year-old daughter to please help set the table for dinner. She told me she couldn’t. Of course, I launched into a full-on rant, saying all the things any parent would say to such a spoiled child. She eventually got up and, with a miserable face, started slamming plates on the table.”

So begins an interesting parenting dilemma. Mom is naturally outraged at the disrespectful, self-centered, and lazy attitude of her teenage daughter. But, being a thoughtful parent, she realizes her “full-on rant” probably wasn’t the best way to address these problems. She notes that although her daughter eventually does what she’s been asked to do, the basic problem — her attitude — is far from fixed.

What causes a child to be rude to parents? Sometimes it’s just a matter of accurately copying parents! Look at this dialogue, for example:

Child: “There’s never anything to eat in this house.”