A frustrated mother has said she is “fucked as a parent” by giving everything to her children and making every moment as special as possible.
Taking to Reddit, the mother-of-two complained that she had forgotten her children’s sense of entitlement and admitted it was all her fault.
She explained that she was a mother who breaks the cycle and wanted to give her children, aged three and seven, the life she never had – but she didn’t realize it would make them ungrateful.
“I gave them everything because I felt like I was giving everything to myself. But I wasn’t. I was just taking more and not teaching them what real life is,” she said.
She decided, and her husband agrees, that it was time for her children to “get bored.”
“No more need to find extraordinary pleasure every day. No more “play locations are the norm” or “you can definitely get this toy at the store this random Saturday.” Instead, we’ll do chores. We’re going to be bored,” she said.
A frustrated mother has said she is “shitty as a parent” by giving everything to her children and making every moment as special as possible.
Add that it’s the only way she can think of to bring her children back to reality.
“I am tired of entitlement, of non-gratitude. I’m tired. And we have to deal with the tantrums that come from having to do chores and being bored, because otherwise we’re doing these kids a disservice,” she said.
The message “exploded”, forcing the mother to clarify certain things.
“I’m not talking about punishing my kids with chores. We are not a family built on punishment,” she said.
And defended his decision to present life as being rather boring.
“To those of you who say that life isn’t particularly boring and doesn’t usually get what you want…I would say that life isn’t like that for you because you have learned how to make your life “not particularly boring” and how to pursue what you want.
“Life is generally boring…unless you learn how to make life not boring.” Because no one is going to just make your life less boring.
People praised the mom for “realizing her mistakes early on.”
“And you didn’t screw up, by the way…they won’t even remember.” “It’s a good reminder for all of us…for those of us who stuff and overstimulate our kids all the time, and for those of us who feel guilty for not doing enough,” one person said .
“Boredom breeds imagination and ideas. We deprive them of it if they don’t have time to stop and think every once in a while.
Others said they did the same – after being pestered by “the grandparents” to always be there for their children, even if this is not achievable in reality.
“Grandparents may say this because they remember the highlights and confuse them with every day. Out of 100 memories, if 80 are trips, vacations, and fun outings, it’s because they forgot the other 6,494 days that were just… eating meals, playing outside, doing laundry on normal days ” one person said.
Most people had fond memories of playing alone, while their parents worked or cleaned the house.
“I was playing with my dolls, making towns out of VHS tapes or whatever I could find.”
Even professionals agreed that the mother made the right decision to put an end to her children’s entertainment.
“As a nanny, one of my pet peeves is parents who think their children need to be stimulated every second of the day. Constant activities, day trips, daily planning of a full schedule for their two-year-old,” one woman said.
Others recognized that they had very few “amazing” moments in their childhood, which made them all the more wonderful.
