NO!

Is it just me, or would our generation never have dreamt of saying “NO!” to our parents?

I’m beginning to wonder whether we have gone too far when even Harriet, my usually compliant 4 year-old came out with a huge stroppy “NO!” the other day in response to a very simple request to do something.

Maybe she gets it from her more argumentative big brother, but thinking back on my childhood I would never in a million years openly refuse to obey a parent or a teacher.

I hear cries of “WHY SHOULD I?” and “BUT I DON’T WANT TO!” ringing in my ears. Has ‘discipline’ become such a dirty word now?

Now I’m sure there are those who would come back at me with the far too simplistic “Oh, so you’d rather go back to the draconian days of the Victorians then when children were horribly abused and treated, would you?”

Grow up, I say to them. Nobody is suggesting that. Neither extreme is attractive; am I just being a grumpy old man to suggest that children should obey their parents and teachers? Maybe I am. But what has gone wrong?

Have we become so utterly obsessed with children’s rights that we have all-but abandoned their responsibilities? This seems to be the case with pretty much anyone these days – no wonder parents are struggling to earn their kids’ respect. We listen to what children want and deserve to such an extent that sometimes we forget that actually their parents might know better. As the Bible put it “Which of you would give your son a stone when he asks for bread?” (From memory; please forgive any inaccuracy.

End of rant – I’m not suggesting a return to austerity, I just don’t think it’s asking too much to expect my children, whom I love to death, to do what their father tells them!