Life with children
Children just know how to embarrass their parents:
I like to say that my children are here to embarrass me! Yea, they can do stuff that will have me blush for many a time!
Children are known to share intimate details of home to their teacher and vice versa. I know a teacher that tells the parent during orientation :” Your child will come home with many stories to share what happened in school that day- do not believe it all and I won’t believe everything she says about you!”
Let us not get started on what to believe and what not, however, how do you deal with embarrassing child moments?
What to do when your child/ student embarrasses you:
- It is always good to have a laugh before you deal with the issue head on. Humor makes dealing with unpleasant things much easier!
- It happens to everyone with children, take a deep breathe and just continue what you were doing before!
- Take a look deeper, is the action a call for help or attention?
Sometimes children know that if they will embarrass you, they will get what they want. This is called manipulation. It is always important to stick to your rules and be consistent, yet fair.
Say you went to shopping with your children and one of them insisted that they want candy and you do not want to buy it. The child then has a full blown tantrum and is lying on the floor screaming, causing all shoppers to turn around and give you that look. Now what? If you give in and say”OK, let us buy the candy” to get your child to stop screaming you just gave in to their tactic – embarrass mom and get what you want! So what should you do ?
What to do to prevent child embarrassment:
- Be Proactive– you know that taking the children shopping will entice them to ask for something? Come prepared either bring your own candy or let them know your expectations of them prior to going shopping. Say, “we will go shopping and if you want to come with me these are the rules… If you break them we will need to go home.” And if they do break them take them home! Nope, it is not easy but it will make your shopping experience much easier all the other times you take them shopping for they know they got to listen to mom! ( It might take a few times of them trying to get that candy until they see you are serious about going home if they do not comply.) This is not to say that you should not make shopping and a fun experience- that is for another time!
- Be understanding yet firm– I know you want this but now we cannot do that…and you can just keep repeating the sentence until child sees you are serious!
- Be consistent – rules are important and only fair to the child. You cannot decide one day it is OK to do/ say /get something and another day not. Of course the child will get hysterical if yesterday you allowed him/ her to do something and today not.
This can help with many situations but not with all some situations you could not have expected and have not been prepared for at all, those times you just got to give it to your child and laugh. Yea, I am talking about the time your child burped loudly in the restaurant causing some heads to turn… oh well life with children is fun, amusing and at times embarrassing!
