whatislife
Active Member
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2016
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- 18
Much respect to her.
"In Oklahoma, a mom who was fed up with her fourteen-year-old daughter’s lousy grades and bad attitude made her stand on a busy street corner holding a sign that read: “I don’t do my homework and I act up in school, so my parents are preparing me for my future. Will work for food."
This tough love, of course, defied every tenet of therapism.
One letter to the editor accused the mother of “killing her daughter psychologically” by embarrassing her publicly. A passing motorist called police to report the alleged incident of self-esteem lowering, and a report on the incident was forwarded to the state Department of Human Services.
The professionals, predictably, inflated themselves into a snit. One professor of child development told reporters that such punishment could do extreme emotional damage. “The trick is to catch them being good,” he said. “It sounds like this mother has not had a chance to catch her child being good or is so upset over seeing her be bad, that’s where the focus is.”
The mom, however, did not subscribe to the catching-them-being-good philosophy and thus proved that she was not as utterly clueless as the professor of child development on the subject of discipline.
“I’m not a professional,” said the mom. “But I felt I owed it to my child to at least try.” And, in fact, she reported that she had seen a marked improvement in her daughter’s behavior in the weeks after the sign incident. Her daughter’s attendance at school had been perfect, and her behavior had noticeably improved.
Apparently unaware that she was supposed to be traumatized and emotionally crippled, the girl told reporters that the episode had gotten her attention. “I won’t talk back,” she said, adding that she hoped to improve her grades enough to be able to play basketball the next year.
Note what the mother in this story did: instead of simply focusing on her daughter’s feelings at the moment, she thought ahead to the consequences of her actions for her life as an adult. Instead of concentrating on what her fourteen-year-old thought about her mom this week, she was concerned with what kind of a twenty-three-year-old she would become. She was willing to embarrass her daughter so that she would not have to endure the much longer and deeper embarrassment of living her life as a loser."
- from "50 rules kids won't learn in school"
I remember reading the article about it, I forgot their names. Anybody remember?
"In Oklahoma, a mom who was fed up with her fourteen-year-old daughter’s lousy grades and bad attitude made her stand on a busy street corner holding a sign that read: “I don’t do my homework and I act up in school, so my parents are preparing me for my future. Will work for food."
This tough love, of course, defied every tenet of therapism.
One letter to the editor accused the mother of “killing her daughter psychologically” by embarrassing her publicly. A passing motorist called police to report the alleged incident of self-esteem lowering, and a report on the incident was forwarded to the state Department of Human Services.
The professionals, predictably, inflated themselves into a snit. One professor of child development told reporters that such punishment could do extreme emotional damage. “The trick is to catch them being good,” he said. “It sounds like this mother has not had a chance to catch her child being good or is so upset over seeing her be bad, that’s where the focus is.”
The mom, however, did not subscribe to the catching-them-being-good philosophy and thus proved that she was not as utterly clueless as the professor of child development on the subject of discipline.
“I’m not a professional,” said the mom. “But I felt I owed it to my child to at least try.” And, in fact, she reported that she had seen a marked improvement in her daughter’s behavior in the weeks after the sign incident. Her daughter’s attendance at school had been perfect, and her behavior had noticeably improved.
Apparently unaware that she was supposed to be traumatized and emotionally crippled, the girl told reporters that the episode had gotten her attention. “I won’t talk back,” she said, adding that she hoped to improve her grades enough to be able to play basketball the next year.
Note what the mother in this story did: instead of simply focusing on her daughter’s feelings at the moment, she thought ahead to the consequences of her actions for her life as an adult. Instead of concentrating on what her fourteen-year-old thought about her mom this week, she was concerned with what kind of a twenty-three-year-old she would become. She was willing to embarrass her daughter so that she would not have to endure the much longer and deeper embarrassment of living her life as a loser."
- from "50 rules kids won't learn in school"
I remember reading the article about it, I forgot their names. Anybody remember?
