my mother in law was kind enough to take in our oldest son when he went to college. Unfortunately, she did not take into account our extremely different parenting styles, coming into the mix and being a source of conflict. She was quite insistent that our son clean up the room he occupied; the problem was that we had never made him clean up his room! Not once! The reason was that, like so many other philosophies, I had taken the mantra of "don't sweat the small stuff" to heart.I did not care if his bedroom was clean and tidy; after all, neither was ours! there were so many other things to worry about as the parents of teenagers that a tidy room seemed like small potatoes.the raging emotions and hormones of puberty provide more than enough conflicts in life. there were plenty more important things to argue about. I was concerned about whether or not Jarrett would want to talk to us after puberty; not whether or not his laundry made it into the hamper. after all, if he did not have clean clothes, that was his problem not mine.
ALthough, Jarrett does keep his room tidier for his grandmother, he still leaves a trail of clothes at home, and he likes to spend time with his parents, something that I believe is rare in todays world.
Parents, don't sweat the small stuff; look at the bigger picture.
No comments:
Post a Comment