I once complained online about the daily balance parents are forced to strike between their kids’ lives and their own. A fellow parent responded succinctly: Parenting is overrated. Hmm. If I really weigh the pros and cons, do I think it’s all worth it? Or is parenting overrated? We already know parents are overrated. But that much is obvious; in many ways we aren’t as important to our kids as we think we are. The question of whether parenting is overrated for the parent is a little trickier. Using the age-old technique of listing pros and cons, I’m going to attempt to break it down. I … [Read more...]
About Mike Julianelle
Common Parenting Mistakes, or Acts of Well-Intentioned Desperation
I recently came across an article online a family psychologist wrote about the most common parenting mistakes. I can’t afford a family psychologist, so I read it in hope of getting some free tips. The advice wasn't actually bad, but it was not always realistic, especially for a parent of young kids. It did have some good advice for parents with older kids but I’m totally going to forget all of it by the time it's relevant to my life. But just because there’s some solid, viable advice in there doesn’t mean that I won’t mock it. So here we go! Most Common Parenting Mistakes Giving … [Read more...]
The Not-So-Lazy Art of Telling Your Child ‘Because I Said So’
I know lazy parents. Lazy parents are friends of mine (not you, Brendan!). I am a lazy parent. However, using the phrase “because I said so” is not lazy parenting. Not all the time. There is almost always an ulterior motive to our parenting, whether the goal is as simple and selfish as having a child who cleans up after himself (so you don’t have to do it) or as grand and altruistic as raising your kid into a kind, successful adult (so he can take care of you when you’re older and hooked on heroin). Let’s be realistic: nobody has kids just for the kids’ sake. We do it because we expect … [Read more...]
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