April 22, 2020 at 08:07PM


Wayback Wednesday:  Here's an excerpt from a blog I wrote in early 2012 when the sons were aged 18, 15 and 7.

While it's true that experience is the best teacher, we soon discovered that our earlier gameplan with the older boys wasn't effective with our youngest when it came to school deportment.  I dreaded moments when I would be met by his adviser who would tell me that our 7-year old boy was sent to the corner for not behaving well.

Weeks back, I received a Grade 1 activity paper.  Written in red were the words "Please learn to BEHAVE WELL in class". It was next to his score of 41/41!  He got both praises for his perfect score and a good reprimand for the red note.  The older brothers poked fun of the situation and said "You never had that problem with us, Ma". True, but I pretended not to hear.

I sure thought we had it all figured out, but no.  The "Tiger Mom" approach which once proved to be effective with the "kuyas", didn't do much this time.  It's like being first time parents all over again, trying out new or different tactics to mold the youngest one.

There's really no hard and fast rule to parenting.  One could never say a particular approach is the best way to do it.

Meanwhile, this happy young boy continued to have way too much fun.

Moving forward, we learned to go with our gut as we continued to guide our boys, the youngest most especially. Instead of having to impose rules, it's more of being able to make him understand why he needs to behave a certain way, why it's not "play time" always.  Occasional rewards helped, while harsh reprimands were reserved for extreme instances of misdemeanor.

It probably worked, because when I picked him up from school one day, he happily said: "Ma, I was not in the warning list this time!" ♥️ https://instagr.am/p/B_SFTpnAaOp/ via Tumblr https://ift.tt/3cBCsv4

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