August 26, 2024: Use Leverage
"Once you carry your own water, you'll remember every drop.
⁃ African proverb
Parents – When you were children and had to work for something; earning it by completing some parental request, you took better care of it than you did of something that had just been given to you. Having to clean your room for a week in order to receive that bracelet you wanted or those basketball shoes, just naturally made them more important to you because you had to earn them; you had some skin in the game. Not enough parents today, understand the concept of what I call leverage. When your child wants something; and they always want something, that gives you leverage. You can then leverage their desire for whatever it is, into granting their request, on condition that they do something that you want them to do, ie improve that math grade or spend less time with their electronic devices. I have long believed in the concept of fairness, and it has always seemed unfair to me for children to get what they want while their parents do not get what they want. When children habitually get something for nothing, they miss out on the all-important lesson that in order to HAVE something, you have to DO something. Parents-it is better to be their teacher than their friend. Now you know.
© 2024 Detroit Flanagan
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