Wednesday 6 February 2013

Rules for raising a child


A while ago I came across, How to Raise a Child: 10 Rules from Susan Sontag. I really liked reading her ten rules and felt each one was good and true advice for any parent to follow. I thought it sounded like she had struck a nice balance between encouraging some structure, good behaviour and standards, whilst at the same time nurturing the innocence of childhood and a child's natural sensibilities. Here are her rules:
  1. Be consistent.
  2. Don’t speak about him to others (e.g., tell funny things) in his presence. (Don’t make him self-conscious.)
  3. Don’t praise him for something I wouldn’t always accept as good.
  4. Don’t reprimand him harshly for something he’s been allowed to do.
  5. Daily routine: eating, homework, bath, teeth, room, story, bed.
  6. Don’t allow him to monopolize me when I am with other people.
  7. Always speak well of his pop. (No faces, sighs, impatience, etc.)
  8. Do not discourage childish fantasies.
  9. Make him aware that there is a grown-up world that’s none of his business.
  10. Don’t assume that what I don’t like to do (bath, hairwash) he won’t like either.
Do you particularly agree or disagree with any of these? Any other rules you would add to your own list?

Head over to Brain Pickings for a bit of background to the list....

1 comment:

  1. I think that whatever approach you decide to take number 1 is a given. I at least 'aim' for that, though we all make mistakes through tiredness, being pushed to the limits or whatever.

    Number 9 is an odd one that I'm not sure about. I mean there are obvious grown-up things that children don't need to know about at a very young age (!) but I'm not sure about excluding them from knowledge or answering satisfying curiosities. It really depends what he means by that.

    Other than that the rules are generally pretty sound, I think :) xx

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