I read an interesting online article about parenting recently. The article asked what a parent should do if their child has made friends with a bad kid. Should the parent tell their child to stop hanging out with the bad influence?
The gist of the article’s advice was that you shouldn’t tell your child what friends to have. Children often do the opposite of what their parents tell them anyway, so such advice might backfire.
It reminded me of something one of my friends said. Four or five of her son’s school friends are in the habit of coming round to her house after school and playing there. The kids open the cupboards and search out chocolate and other snacks and eat them without asking permission, and leave the house in a mess. My good natured friend doesn’t want to tell them off, even though she is annoyed.
The longer she leaves it, the harder it will be. Imagine how wild these children, who are now eight, will be when they are teenagers. Perhaps my friend needs to join a cult or something, to find a way to put the children off coming to her house.
“Before you
play, beloved children, let us all read from the guru’s guidebook on how to
avoid going to hell!”
Vocabulary:
the gist of
something – the substance or general meaning of a speech, text, etc.
[eg., I
couldn’t catch everything, but I understood the gist of what she said.]
for
something to backfire – for something to have the opposite effect of what was
intended
[eg., The
politician tried to win popularity by being seen at a rock concert. But his plan backfired when people asked why
he didn’t pay for the tickets.]
to put
someone off doing something – to cause someone to lose interest or enthusiasm
[eg., Many
people are put off eating natto by the smell.]
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