Do Your Child A Favour

I know that what I’m about to say in the following paragraphs may very well get me cancelled. It will certainly trigger a lot of people and attract the rage of many a bleeding heart. But my rage is no less valid than your rage, and so here it goes.

I. Am. Not. Required. To. Gentle. Parent. YOUR. Child.

I am especially not required to gentle parent your child if your child is not in fact a child at all but indeed a license carrying, vehicle-driving individual.

And if that license carrying, vehicle-driving individual infringes on my rights, then, by god, I will come down on them like a tonne of bricks. And I will not apologise for it. And I will not apologise to you either when you come storming up my path to have a go at me for teaching your “child” a lesson in respect.

Being a parent is an extremely difficult job. It requires patience, courage, stamina, understanding and love. It is an exhausting and overwhelming task. It is a choice not to be taken lightly. It is a choice I admire others making. And it is one I chose against because I knew I did not have these qualities. If you made the choice to become a parent then you should accept that parenting your child is your responsibility alone.

What has become ever so apparent is that many parents these days don’t have the fortitude to do the real tough work, to lay down some hard lessons, and battle against an emotional and/or belligerent mini-me. Somewhere along the line, parenting became a class in negotiating and gentle voices.

But gentle parenting does not do your child any favours. All it does is create an expectation that the world will forever tiptoe around your child’s delicate feelings. Except that, for the most part, the world couldn’t give a fuck about your child’s delicate feelings. And neither do I.

This is where everyone is going to arc up and say, oh, but it takes a village to raise the child. Well, then, that may be. But know this – if you want me to be part of the village that raises your child, then know that MY kind of parenting is NOT going to be your kind of parenting. And if your child rudely intrudes into my sphere of existence, then beware – I have no patience for the arrogant sense of self-entitlement that you have nurtured in your child.

If you cannot teach your child the basics of being part of a larger society which doesn’t revolve around them, a society that doesn’t subscribe to the same patient, gentle parenting YOU have cocooned your child in, then the least you can do is prepare them for some kick back when they learn a hard lesson or two from that society.

So do your child a favour. Teach them to be humble and teach them to be respectful. And if they make a mistake, teach them to be contrite. Because if you don’t, I will.