Reference: Found here
I saw an Instagram reel this morning that stopped me in my tracks: A “ parenting expert” confidently stated that if your kid wants to be famous, then you’re a bad parent.
Parenting offers the opportunity to share values and provide guidance.
But suggesting that parents must ensure that kids feel or think a certain way lends itself to authoritarian parenting (with poorer outcomes for kids and parents), tremendous anxiety , and an impossible standard to uphold. People—especially our kids—aren’t meant to be controlled, and honestly, they don’t cooperate with it anyway.
As Brene Brown has written: “To see and to be seen—that is the truest nature of love.” Humans big and small want to be seen, valued, and admired. This may be most true during adolescence when being seen and respected is incredibly important.
What may be most troubling to me is that this type of messaging not only creates fear , but it can lead to reactive and invalidating responses from parents when teens express themselves.
