Pagan Parenting
The below article is a quite good one, in my humble opinion. I feel very strongly on this issue, having been in the position of dealing with some of these spoiled little jerks and their oblivious parents who would dump their brats on me at Tae Kwon Do class and expect me to magickally undo the 6 or so years of indulgence of their darling in 2 hours a week of yelling Korean at them. Doesn't work that way, kids.
The "we can't discipline our child because it's stifling his growth" is a ridiculous way of saying "you should put up with our child because we don't have the basic parental skills necessary to bring up a well developed child who understands rules and boundaries." The rest of us then find OUR children being short changed in schools and elsewhere because the teachers have to spend so much time chasing little miss "can't say no." Of course, if the little angel hurts herself by doing something she was told explicitly not to do, the parents will sue the facility for something that's clearly their own fault.
So who gets hurt when you don't know how to discipline your child? All of us. Say "no," mean "no," and follow up.
Witchvox Article:
“We’ve never told him ‘No.’ We don’t want to create a barrier of negativity for him”
I shook my head in utter disbelief. What do you do when he’s doing something dangerous? “Well we tell him *Danger sweetheart, DANGER!*”
The thought of a parent chasing their two year old towards a freeway chirruping ‘Danger sweetheart’ leaves me in cold sweats to this day.
My son has been in the ‘No’ from a young age. When walking into a local shop full of lovely breakable objects I see shop owners cringe. They are waiting for the crash of merchandise and the inevitable justification. “Oh he’s just exploring” “Children have such an indomitable need to explore”. An elderly couple watches out of the corner of their eye.
Darting little hands seeking to seize a lovely porcelain pentacle which I can by no stretch of the imagination afford. “Bradley, NO.” The couple all but applauds. The bricks coming through the pores of the gal behind the counter shrink to gravel sized pellets. The hand raises again, and this time with authority in tone, “BRAD, NO.” Although I feel like a jerk, small hands abate their activity.