A Tween’s Look at Parenting

I asked my daughter for some thoughts on parenting from a tween’s perspective of how parents can help their kids succeed. As I listened to her speak I realized two things: I have a very energetic child and I am not doing a bad job raising her. As a parent we can forget how great a job we are doing because of the daily rush of parenting and getting them ready for school, preparing them for life, and explaining what they are seeing in the media and how to process it.

To record these videos, I asked the question with no prep time and then hit record, so you are getting her candid response.

Let’s hear her thoughts:

I was curious what she meant by punishments, limits, and boundaries so I asked her to record her thoughts on another video about this subject. Note that she gave me much more credit than I deserve and pointed to some things as though I would be editing these videos – but that isn’t my thing so there are no links or flashing words – but go with her on her pointing and maybe someday we will add them in.

Let’s hear her thoughts:

What did you think? Anything that stood out to you?

I have to say I learned some things while listening to her.

• She appreciates having punishments, limits, and boundaries even though she gets quite upset when they are enforced.
• Kids learn so much more than we give them credit for.
• She truly hates cursing. For Christmas, she asked Santa if he could eradicate curse words from human vocabulary and movies because it was affecting her ability to watch some TV shows and movies, and people she loved used too many of them when mad. It’s definitely something in our family that when we are upset we color our descriptions with curse words and it’s something I personally have been searching my heart about because I know it points to a deeper heart issue.
• I didn’t realize how much she truly does pay attention to politics and keeps up on what is going on. I will have to follow up on that one, as the night Trump was elected she cried herself to sleep thinking she would be taken away the next morning because she is Mexican. I assured her she is okay but sounds like maybe the wall issue has her thinking about this again. I also need to find out if there are some young politician type committees or clubs she can join because she could be a future politician and I want to nurture that if so.

I will explore more about creative punishments and how we instill boundaries in our family. Since my daughter’s mind comprehends things differently from others, I have had to work to come up with boundaries and punishments that help her understand the focus is on the action and the heart behind it versus her as a person. When raising kids who are different and don’t fit societal norms fully, we tend to become frustrated but it really can be a great opportunity to pour into their strengths and teach them constructive thinking. I look forward to sharing more on creativity in parenting and business, as these are two areas of my life I daily operate in!