I’m doing programmes talking about how to achieve the result that Jordan Peterson, in Rule 5 of his book, “12 Rules for Life”, calls “Do Not Let Your Children Do Anything that Makes You Dislike Them.” I think that’s a great goal that all parents should all aim for.
Before we pass the buck to the children, saying it’s all their fault that they’re behaving so badly, we need to admit that the behaviour of our children begins and is very largely based on the sort of everyday life they live with what I’d call parents, or what are more politically correctly called caregivers, which dehumanises everyone.
Let me illustrate by starting to talk about this problem with an almost very useful article by the legendary American Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The article is called “Preventing Child Maltreatment Through the Promotion of Safe, Stable, and Nurturing Relationships between Children and Caregivers”. So there’s that word again.
Now the article is supposed to be giving advice that, amongst other things, should produce the result that your children won’t do anything that makes you dislike them. But even before you get past the title, you’ve hit the first problem with the solution that they come up with. And it’s almost a good solution. But the fatal problem is in the title. So I’ll talk about that.
Tag words: Discipline; Jordan Peterson; 12 Rules for Life; children; co-habiting parents; married parents; maltreatment of children; step-families; step father; Incest; role models; reform institutions; swinging sixties; married family; Christian;
