YouTube and Raising Children by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

Recently, I saw a YouTube post in which a mother told her nanny, “Don’t parent my child.” I was totally confused as to why the mother would say such a thing.

From what the nanny said, she dealt with two preschool-aged kids, throwing heavy and or breakable objects at her face, tossing food everywhere, scribbling on the nanny and the walls and furniture, and even more concerning, doing things that jeopardized their five-month-old younger sibling. The nanny herself had been punched, kicked, and bitten, as well.

And I’m totally confused as to why this mother thought it wasn’t in the purview of a nanny to discipline her children let alone how this mother thought a professional caregiver could take care of children that old without disciplining them.

Man, am I glad I don’t babysit anymore! I can’t imagine taking care of children for several hours without having to correct their behavior. For any mother to think that the help shouldn’t need to do so is massively narrow-minded or just plain stupid.

To give you an idea about how dumb this is, I once performed a skit in a high school drama competition all about what a holy terror kids can be when left with a babysitter, based mostly on an incident that happened to me with a family of boys who were highly mischievous, and I never had to deal with the things this nanny in the post had to deal with.

I mean, this post was not about kids testing the limits, but rather about kids who have probably never been told “no” which totally brings to mind an old movie about a girl named Tammy who lived on a houseboat, and how she got a job tending four boys for the evening; four ill-behaved cretins who she soon taught some manners to, only to discover when the parents returned home that they never used the word “no” with their children.

Tammy, being the naive country girl she was, couldn’t understand how it was possible to raise well-behaved children without telling them “no” once in a while.

Frankly, being the mature woman I am, I know, what you get from never disciplining your children is a bunch of mannerless entitled brats.

I’m sure many of you have heard the saying, “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” It is an accurate saying. And I am not saying beat your children into submission, nor am I advocating spanking. Those really don’t work anyway. But this saying could be reworded to say, “Refrain from teaching children manners, and setting limits on them, and you spoil the child, i.e. you turn them into entitled brats who refuse to take no for an answer.”

If you want a more modern take on the subject, read Harry Potter, and note how the Dursleys raise their son. This is a prime example of how to spoil a child, or in other words, raise a brat.

And yes, I said, read the books. Those movies leave way too much out! You will not get the full picture of how awful Mr. and Mrs. Dursley were as parents from the movies.

Then again, watching the movies you don’t get to see how useful Ron was to Harry, mostly because lines he actually said in the books were given to Hermione. Case in point, the scene just after Malfoy called Hermione a filthy mudblood. Everything Hermione later says in Hagrid’s hut telling Harry what mudblood means were actually Ron’s words.

In the book, Hermione was as lost about why Ron reacted the way he did to Malfoy’s slur as Harry was, rightfully so, because both Hermione and Harry were raised in the muggle world not the wizarding world. They didn’t know the wizarding world’s social mores. I particularly like the scene where Ron doesn’t know any of the children’s stories Hermione and Harry grew up with but could tell them a whole list of stories he grew up with. Well written actually.

Of course, the movies also leave out the best bits about Ginny and who she really was. Ginny was one strong and forthright little lady. She could stand up against anybody, but then she did have six big brothers.

Anyway, I’ve found that books are always better than movies and I know, that not teaching children manners is what’s wrong with the world today. Don’t beat them; teach them! Gently train them to be considerate and kind.

Happy writing everyone!