How to tantrum-proof your kids: 35 steps for today's parents
Amy McCready, author of a guide to raising kids in he 21st century, talks about tamping down the scourge of entitlement
No one wants to be the parent of a child in a video going viral, screaming in a restaurant or throwing a tantrum in the cereal aisle. So how can parents instil positive values and fight back against a culture in which it seems kids are entitled to anything? Amy McCready, founder of Positive Parenting Solutions and author of The "Me, Me, Me" Epidemic: A Step-by-Step Guide to Raising Capable, Grateful Kids in an Over-Entitled World, talked to us about tamping down the scourge of entitlement.
Most of my work has been around teaching parents how to bring out the best in their kids. Over the years, this topic of entitlement kept coming up. Parents told me about kids not being able to take "no" for an answer, expecting bribes or rewards for expected behaviour, kids who were not willing to help out at home, not taking personal responsibility.
The one thing I have found with all of these parents is that no one intends to raise an entitled child. It happens out of love. And it happens when we're doing things for our kids that they're actually perfectly capable of doing for themselves. Or we don't want them to experience disappointment, so we step in and rescue.
There are actually 35 tools in the book. That is not meant to sound overwhelming, just to let parents know there are different ways. The most important thing that we have to do is give our kids what they are truly entitled to: our one-on-one time and attention. If you're giving kids that time and attention, they're much less likely to throw a fit in the grocery store. They're much less likely to pull these antics.
Another thing is making sure all family members, toddlers to teens to adults, everybody contributes. It's not a free ride for kids. From the time the kids are little, they need to understand that their contributions make a difference.