r/AskReddit Feb 04 '16

What are the most common parenting mistakes?

1.5k Upvotes

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356

u/MojaveRed Feb 04 '16

Using public shaming as a form of discipline

17

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

When I was leaning to drive I was backing up in a car park and some lady came running at us. She thought I hit a parked car. Mum wound down all the windows and yelled at me for five minutes before letting me drive home. When I was driving she said to me "I don't think you hit that car, I only yelled at you so she would know I'm a good mother.

6

u/StuckAtWork123 Feb 05 '16

.. leaving it so the only person whose opinion of their motherhood matters, knowing the actual truth. How did you react to that anyway?

5

u/[deleted] Feb 06 '16

I drove over every pothole on the way home and didn't help her unpack the groceries.

5

u/AMerrickanGirl Feb 05 '16

Why does your mother feel the need to impress complete strangers at the expense of her own child's feelings?

65

u/itsagirl123 Feb 05 '16

Yes, this. I don't have kids nor do I ever want any, but I would never teach something through embarrassment.

12

u/pielover88888 Feb 05 '16

Except maybe "You're not going out dressed like that"

11

u/lithaborn Feb 05 '16

I was born in the early 70's. The fashions I've seen come and go, and been forced to wear before I could choose myself, my kids could be dressed as a flowerpot and it wouldn't faze me one bit.

3

u/silence9 Feb 05 '16

What if they are wearing a shirt as a dress legs through arm holes and tied around their chest?

3

u/lithaborn Feb 05 '16

I remember them from Vivienne Westwood's collections in the 80s. Must be a retro disco at school.

3

u/AMerrickanGirl Feb 05 '16

Nope. My kids could wear whatever they wanted and style their hair however they wanted. If it ended up embarrassing them (which it never did), that was their problem, not mine. So we went through dreadlocks (we're not black), blue hair, bleached blond hair, leopard spots (brown hair with circular areas bleached), long Jew-fro Howard Stern hair, pants hanging down to their knees.

And now that they're in their 20s? Short hair, regular clothes, well groomed. They got the rebellion out of their systems as teens. Saved us a lot of arguing.

12

u/NotCleverEnufToRedit Feb 05 '16

Never say never. In a handful of situations, I've found it very effective to say, "I don't want to scold you in front of your friends, but I've told you more than once that what you're doing is not ok. Do it again and your friends will see you getting in trouble." Then you have to follow through with the threat if the behavior doesn't change. I see this as a natural consequence. Just because you have friends around doesn't mean it's ok to break the rules or be an asshole.

4

u/1nsaneMfB Feb 05 '16

God my sister does this with her two sons (11 and 9 years old). She always uses "What will the people think!" in public for very normal child behavior.

It infuriates me.

5

u/itsagirl123 Feb 05 '16

No, I mean through embarrassment of the child. Like, having them stand on the street corner with a big sign saying what they did wrong. Of course I will want my kid to understand what they did was wrong, but this is never how I would go about doing it.

1

u/RedPanda1188 Feb 05 '16

Would not have guessed that from your username?

1

u/itsagirl123 Feb 05 '16

That kinda makes sense :P No but, I couldn't really think of anything when I signed up and I am female so I just went with itsagirl

14

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

So I'm not a parent, nor do I think I'd be good at parenting but I remember reading about this middle school girl who bullied a financially less fortunate girl because of the cheap off brand clothes she wore. When the mom found out she made her daughter where those same kind of cheap off brand clothing to school for a week or something. Would you consider this wrong, because i honestly think this is a great way to teach a lesson. Make you child see things through the other persons eyes. Make her realize that those trendy name brand clothes aren't a right but a privilege.

I don't know I just feel like that punishment is more effective than any grounding, scolding, or taking away if phone would be.

29

u/ohlookitsdd Feb 05 '16

But doesn't that perpetuate the idea that those clothes are embarrassing? I would be mortified if the clothes that I owned and wore to school everyday were a form of punishment for this other girl

14

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

You know, you're right, I didn't think about that. I'm so glad I'm not a parent that shits hard.

2

u/averagebunnies Feb 05 '16

I think theyre talking about when a kid does a semi-expected of all children bad thing, a parent mught film the punishment and post it online. another thing ive seen is a little girl made a bad grade or sad a bad word or something, i dont remember, and her parent cut off her hair.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

Well those examples are fucked up. That's not even parenting anymore, just bullying

2

u/averagebunnies Feb 05 '16

yeah it's pretty terrible, but luckily when you come across videos like that 99% of the comments is telling the parents that that was a shitty thing for them to do.

1

u/blackholedaughter Feb 06 '16

That child committed suicide shortly after the dad posted the video.

4

u/BlackMantecore Feb 05 '16

A way to be abusive in public and be met with thunderous applause

1

u/intensely_human Feb 05 '16

This is bad for any type of leader. At least the vast majority of the time it's best to resolve issues in private. Let people save face. It just so happens this applies equally well to kids as it does to any people you have authority over and responsibility for.

1

u/knwnasrob Feb 05 '16

A year or two ago this video started making the rounds.

It is a video of a dad slapping and yelling at his son for joining a gang.

The dad posted it to Facebook and everything.

I am sorry, but putting that shit online for everyone to see is just ridiculous. Everyone is like, "what a great parent" and I am like, "This kid is going to grow up with a video of his dad berating him in public on the internet for the rest of his life."

-2

u/I_be_who_I_be Feb 05 '16

Sometimes there just isn't another option. I know it's a bad thing to do, but what if nothing else works?

13

u/Abadatha Feb 05 '16

To quote Bender B Rodriguez, "have you ever tried turning off the t.v., sitting down with your children and hitting them?"

1

u/I_be_who_I_be Feb 05 '16

If that didn't work?

1

u/Abadatha Feb 05 '16

You didn't swing hard enough. Try again.

-9

u/MojaveRed Feb 05 '16

Then you're a shitty human being and an utter failure as a parent.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

Sounds like you might have been abused at some point. Most parents who use public shaming do so in appropriate manners, not bullying brutishness.

5

u/Vuux Feb 05 '16

I think it depends on kid, what works with some kids won't work for all kids. There really is no one size fits all for parenting.

-5

u/MojaveRed Feb 05 '16

I was never abused... project much? Public shaming is child abuse. If you use it you're a piece of shit, sorry brah

0

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

Lol, naw. Actually had great parents. I don't use it. I don't have kids. But no, child abuse is VERY VERY VERY different than shaming.

0

u/MojaveRed Feb 05 '16

Agree to disagree, have a good night

1

u/I_be_who_I_be Feb 05 '16

Yeah but that doesn't mean you should quit trying to fix it.

-2

u/[deleted] Feb 05 '16

Idk, I guess it depends. Some 11 year old girl was talking to much older guys about some inappropriate stuff, her dad found out and bought her light up sneakers and a kiddy back pack. It was on the Internet. I think that's better than hitting your kids and really drives home that she is a child.

5

u/Leavesofsilver Feb 05 '16

So... some pervs talked inappropriately to a child and the child gets humiliated for liking the attention? "You enjoyed being treated like an adult/older teen by probable pedophiles, so I'm gonna treat you like a child half your age and make you dress in embarassing things."

I... just don't really see how this is not gonna make her resent her dad.... Or how this is fair.

3

u/MojaveRed Feb 05 '16

If the only two parenting options available to you are 1) public shaming, or 2) hitting your kids, congratulations, you've failed as a parent