A few days ago I saw a young boy (preschool) hit his mom when she didn't do what he wanted. It was a pretty hard hit for his size. She joked with me later that I looked shocked but that she hardly noticed it. I don't know if I was shocked as much as concerned. I know that it won't be long before she can't help but notice it.
I feel for her and for the boy. He is trying to find out the limits and when he can't find them he gets resentful. She sees him as a wild child and excuses the behavior. How unfortunate that sometimes we as parents are so emotionally entangled with our children that we don't notice misbehavior. Or if we do notice, we have no conviction that we can change it. In so many ways we tie our own hands and become fairly ineffective in the teaching process. To compound matters, the children increase in anger and disrespect because they see us as all powerful and can't understand why we don't bother to set safe limits. I know I've been guilty of that at times. Hopefully, I'm getting better.
