If you don’t have children, it can be easy to pass judgement on other parents over how they choose to bring up their kids. Whether this is how they are disciplined, what food to feed them, and how much screen time they’re allowed.
However, just as the saying goes, until you’ve walked a mile in someone else’s shoes, you should probably keep your mouth shut. One dad who was convinced he was in the right about his ‘entitled’ brother’s actions has been blasted as an a******.
Sharing his story, the 26-year-old wrote: “I have three kids under five with a fourth kid on its way. Before we had kids, my wife and I had lots of ideas about the parents we were going to be and we had lots of scorn for people who parented in ways we disagreed with but, as any parent knows, actually raising kids is hard work and you will break your ‘values’.
“My brother, 22, is doing a psychology degree, with a few modules on child psychology and development. He regularly tells me that he thinks ‘iPad kids’ are spoiled brats who will struggle developmentally and they are the spawn of lazy, negligent parents.”
He reasoned: “I wouldn't say my kids are iPad kids but they do have one between the three of them and more screen time that I would ideally like.. My brother also disapproves of the fact we give our kids sweets as bribes (occasionally) and have lied to our kids. Every time he tells me his views on parenting I just laugh and tell him to try being a parent, then I'll take his advice.”
Baby name expert shares rare vintage names she expects to make a comeback soon
It turned out that the man’s brother would get to put his theories into action as an incident occurred and the couple needed him to babysit on very short notice. He wrote: “When we got home in the evening the kids were in bed having had dinner and we thanked him profusely.
“He very earnestly told us that, now he had experienced being a parent, he realised that not letting your kids use screens was very easy and they hadn't watched TV or used their iPad in the 12 hours he'd been there. He also said he'd calmed their fears (they had been aware of the emergency a little bit), read to them, not had to bribe them to do anything with sweets and he'd dealt with very calm relaxed children, as opposed to the ‘brats’ they normally are when they're with me (his words).
“He gave us a 20-minute lecture about our bad parenting and now that he was in a position to give advice he was going to give it. We'd been planning on giving him £200 to thank him for doing this for us on short notice and looking after the kids for so long but we sent him on his way without any pay.”
Fuming, the man decided to tell his brother exactly what he thought of him and his ‘advice’ and called him up the next day to give him a piece of his mind. He went on: “I told him I appreciated him looking after the kids but it was better he didn't see them for a while and that him springing that all on us especially after a day of stress showed how immature he really was.
“I told him that he actually didn't know anything about parenting because he wasn't a parent. I concede I may have gone too far but my mum called me up later to tell me my brother was crying and she called me a d******* because he was just trying to help and apparently I'm a bad parent for dealing with people's kindness so rudely. My brother and parents are p***** off at me and not talking to me.”
Read more: Sign up to Mirror US's SMS updates for the latest straight from the newsroom
People who read the Reddit post were quick to offer some harsh truth on the “deluded” mum and dad. One person wrote: “You and your wife seem aggressive and judgmental. Something tells me your brother did not lecture you about your parenting and just reported how the kids did and you took it way too personally.” Another user penned: “Sounds like your childless brother is a better parent than you. Maybe listen to him?”
However, other users were able to see both sides. One person offered: “Your kids are going to end up being brats if you don't quit with the bribery and screen time. Your brother's child psychology courses have made him a bit of a pompous a**. Still, you don't have to be a parent to recognize bad parenting, just like you don't have to be a plumber to spot a leaky pipe.”
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
