Be Constantly Happy Or Your Kids Will Become Bullys

As if mothers don’t worry enough about how their every interaction with their kids will effect them. New research indicates that parents who feel ” frequently bothered” by their children are putting them at risk for becoming bullys. While the article does enforce some sound advice, like having a communicative relationship with your children and meeting their friends, the advice to “stay positive” doesn’t reflect realistic experiences of motherhood.

How “frequently bothered” is being quantified is also suspect when it comes to children. There should be more focus on”helping parents to manage the negative emotions that they may have,” especially in the context of work, household chores, homework, and yet another temper tantrum. But to suggest that the surfacing of negative emotions is abnormal or the slightest bit damaging reinforces a perfectionist understanding of parenting, in which the slightest err will induce years of therapy or a psychological complex. While there should always be more efforts to assist parents in the arduous choice that they’ve made, to offer them a saying befitted for a camp t-shirt just doesn’t seem practical either. It also doesn’t seem conducive to encourage dissonance in your child by putting on a facade as a parent that is not fundamentally you as an adult.