Good Parenting

Parenting can be a challenge at the best of times. That is why we need to always have some strategies up our sleeve for how to deal with situations that arise. Every family has different dynamics and you need to do what is right for your family.

What is the biggest challenge you are facing with your children right now? My biggest challenge is with my teenage son who seems to be quite addicted to sugar. Now allow me to go through my thought patterns here so as to inspire you to deal with your child’s problems when they arise.

My son will have heaped dessertspoons of sugar on his cereal each morning, definitely NOT something that I have ever modelled or allowed him to do. But somehow over the past few years this habit has slipped into his life. I’m not sure if I have been slack for a long time but the bottom line is that now David has a problem with his sugar intake.

Just yesterday I sat down with my friend Steve and he offered to help me deal with this particular parenting challenge. He suggested that I get rid of all sugar from the house. Easy for him to say that. What about when visitors come for a cuppa? “Put a small amount of sugar in your safe”, he suggested to me.

Then Steve suggested that I buy some of those sugar sachets that only have one teaspoon in and leave them on the kitchen table each morning, labelled with each child’s name. But could it possibly work?

I did what Steve suggested and watched on as my kids woke up the next morning to find these tiny little sugar sachets on the bench. And guess what? The kids just used the tiny amount of sugar that was there. They didn’t ask for any more. Now why didn’t I think of that years ago?

Sometimes we will have a battle when we try to do something different like this. Luckily my kids responded well. Actually, the child with the big sugar problem didn’t even use the sugar. He went to the cupboard and found my golden syrup and used heaps of that instead. So obviously I will have to hide that as well. But now I am motivated to follow through until the breakthrough comes.

Here’s the thing: as parents we need to be prepared to do whatever it takes to get our kids to do the right thing. It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about sugar or something else. The issue is whether we are prepared to be consistent and follow through even when the going gets tough. When we learn to follow through we are rising to the challenges of parenting.