If you're a keen watcher of Supernanny, you'll have seen plenty of out of control kids. You may even feel your own child is too hard to control. But as Supernanny teaches us - it's never too late.
A lot of parenting advice does give you the impression that raising a child is about damage limitation. It often seems like everything you do is going to spoil them in some way. This is surely counter-productive, because if you’re constantly anxious about screwing it up, all you’ll do is transmit that anxiety to your child – and that’s not good for them either.
You’ll have a happier parenting experience if you try to be less of a control freak about it. Yes, of course you should be a responsible parent and do everything you can to bring them up right. But there is no foolproof way to raise a child because it’s hard to predict how kids will respond. Two siblings can be raised with the same approach and turn out very differently.
Sometimes encouraging a child in a certain direction will work, sometimes it’ll cause them to rebel and do the total opposite.
Pay attention to your child, learn about them as they develop, set a good example and try to guide them the right way, but remember that they’ll become their own person eventually and they’ll have to make their own mistakes. We’re all just works in progress after all.