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Showing posts with the label self-esteem

Stop Telling Kids They Are Perfect The Way They Are

Parenting is super tricky. You do a thing you think is great - look, I've set very strict guidelines that will make my kid a super adult and prepare them for the world - and all you do is instill them with the thought that you never let them have fun and kept them from being able to adjust to the world as it is. OTOH, you give them no rules and be their friend, and they long for you to have given them direction and guidance and pushed them so that they didn't end up with no skills and a habit of laying around on a couch all day. It is really the ultimate no win situation in a game that feels incredibly important to win.  As a result, I'm hesitant to give hard and fast advice on how to parent a specific child. But there is one piece thing I think we parents need to stop doing across the board: stop telling kids they are "perfect the way they are."   This is also a tricky, mine filled field to traipse through, because honestly, self esteem requir...

Dear Daughter

Care Norway has a new video out on YouTube supposedly detailing the life a woman. The video takes the form of an unborn girl's letter to her father. It comes complete with a #DearDaddy hashtag. And loads of crap. Are you kidding me? I'm not saying middle school-aged girls aren't called the names mentioned in the video (whore and slut are specifically name dropped) nor that teenage boys don't make sexual advances on teenage girls. Both happen. The little girl makes a point of reminding her Dad that he probably did many of the same things growing up. He probably did. I'm sure that if, showed a video of my life, I'd be embarrassed about lots of it. So would my wife, most likely. So would you, I'm guessing. Life isn't something we are born knowing how to do. Our 20-year-old selves often have different goals, values and understanding than our 40-year-old selves. As it should be. We shouldn't want or understand things the same way at 20 as we do at...