As a parent sometimes it is not possible to have a complete control over a child’s life. But, it is a duty of parents to ensure that children are always safe. Read on to know about the 5 things which you cannot control as a parent.
There are things which a child does which leave parents baffled. Some of them are not really beneficial for them, yet you cannot do much to eradicate it from your child’s life. Knowing well that junk food is harmful you cannot do anything to prevent your child from consuming it. You can restrict the eating of junk food at home. But your child will inevitably go out and have junk food without your knowledge. Parents’ control is limited. Here are some things parents cannot control even if they try.
1. Social Network
You must have read truckloads about the cons of using social network and how they are harmful especially for impressionable minds. You must have carefully read the articles and made your child read them too. But to what end? Has that session of sitting your child down and explaining to them helped? In all probability, no. Your child must have dismissed all and asked you to not worry about it.
Even if you have insisted that they delete their account, they have still continued to use them. You simply cannot control their being on social networking sites or their activities on it. Although parents do not have complete control, it is their responsibility to make children aware of the cons of social networking and how to be safe online.
2. Smart Phones
You have tried innumerable times to explain to them the cons of being on their phones all the time but your words have fallen on deaf ears. You must be regretting the day that you bought them that annoying gadget, but there is no use crying over spilt milk.
Their phones have distracted them from their studies; they have stopped talking to people, hooked as they are, at all times to their phones. They have stopped listening to anything you say as the earphones are constantly plugged in. you simply cannot control it. It is a necessity too. It helps them stay connected which is needed in today’s generation but parents should make their children aware that how too much of anything is harmful.
3. Food Habits
The food habit of today’s generation is worrying. Only a handful is concerned about their health and diet. The rest are curious to try every junk food that they can lay their hands on. With a new fast food outlet opening up every day your child’s health is going down the drain. You know how dangerous it is for them but they do not seem to listen to you.
No doubt you have tried to make them eat healthy at home banning junk food completely, but you cannot control what they eat outside. Reducing their pocket money is not an option either as they do need to eat outside due to the busy schedules they have away from home. Unless they themselves become conscious of the harm their food habits are causing them you cannot control it in any way. But you should always make their aware of harms caused due to eating unhealthy food.
4. Relationships
You cannot control who they make friends with. You can meet their friends and advise them to avoid certain individuals’ company but you cannot stop them being friends with someone who you think are not the right type. Children these days strike up instant friendships without always judging if their friends are good for them. You can reason with them about the friends they make but you cannot make them break their friendship. But it is your responsibility to alert them.
5. Behaviour
Unless you have ensured your child behaves properly when young, you cannot really control how they behave later. They might be aggressive or passive, over trusting or avoiding. There is no way you can change or control it in their mature years. So, it is your duty to set right examples through your behaviour.
Parents do feel desperate when they cannot control things in their child’s life. But they must understand the fact that, as the child is growing he or she must trust the child to make decisions and judge what is right and wrong for themselves. They might go wrong but it will help them learn and mature and act as stepping stones towards success in life. Although, you cannot control everything but you can guide your children through what is right and what is wrong.
How to control children? Is it possible for parents to have a complete control over a child’s life? Which things in a child’s life are out of control of parents? Discuss here.
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- The Indiaparenting Team
