A mother has revealed why she refuses to be her child's friend.
Meredith Masony says her “job” as a parent is to be her children's cheerleader. And she's not going to teach them “resilience.”
The 43-year-old doesn't put any labels on her parenting style and treats her children, ages 13, 15 and 17, all very differently.
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A mother of three, she always wanted to sit back and “watch” her children so they could play independently and “use their imaginations.”
Meredith agrees with the new trend of sitter-vising, in which parents sit and supervise their children while they play.
Meredith, a content creator and cartoonist from Florida, USA, says, “If you're a child's playmate, you're undermining the child's resilience. This new term is sitterbising. I just call it parenting.”
“Parents who dote on their children. Children will grow up feeling entitled. My job as a mother is to be that cheerleader.”
Meredith grew up in the '80s and has adopted many of the same parenting styles from her childhood.
Furthermore, she added: “The way we grew up in the ’80s, we didn’t have parents. We didn’t let our parents play with us.
“We were roaming outside. You can't parent like you did in the '80s. But there are a lot of strong parenting principles that give kids the freedom to go out and do things.
“For me personally, my job as a parent is to let my children use their imaginations and play.”
Although her siblings were older now, Meredith always let her children play independently rather than getting involved.
She is “concerned” about children raised by helicopter parents (a style in which the mother or father is deeply involved in the child's life and play).
Meredith also refuses to mate with the children. She continued, “I don't want to be a kid's friend. I'm a parent. I make sure my kids are safe. I'm there to help.”
“You can't be friends with a 16-year-old. We have nothing in common. When these parents become best friends with their child, you think, 'Is that really true?'”
“Your best friend is someone you can share everything you're going through.” And she treats her three children differently, too.
“They are three different people and cannot be treated the same. My first child potty trained on his own. My second child completely changed my life. ”
“My youngest son was even more unusual. He was a little chameleon. When it comes to parenting, one size does not fit all.”
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