Reply To: Are We Spoiling Our Kids?

I have learned time and time again that you can not force others to do the right thing, particularly with telling them how they should raise their children

I never thought I could force others to do anything. Why would I think so? But I am allowed to rant, to talk and to write about it.

The only thing that can be done is to teach your own children what is right and wrong, and hope they internalize it.

We live in a time of extreme materialism (which is the source of many, if not all of the “crisises” that we claim to exist). If you are happy not having everything, and show your children that you can be happy with less, Bezras Hashem your children will escape the materialism that surrounds them.

Things are not so simple. Kids are not carbon copies of their parents, you know. Living in a world of consumerism and materialism may have an effect.

A parent needs to be strong. A child needs to be strong (yes, kids are not spineless creatures). But if EVERYONE keeps on getting, getting, getting, it’s not easy to lay down the laws.

For example, the neighborhood kids keep on licking ices the ENTIRE day. I really mean it. My kids are playing outside with them. When they come in asking for another ices “cause everyone has more than one” and I don’t let, it’s ridiculous that I have even have to be busy with something that should be common sense for other parents. I constantly need to explain to my kids (as I keep on doing so often these days) that “we don’t do what others do”.

Why do people overindulge their kids?

There is nothing wrong with giving. But there is something wrong with overindulging them. It’s not necassarily the big things in life, it’s everyday stuff that bothers me.

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with having, but there must be priorities.

I agree.